Bill Bumpus an injury to one is an injury to all

Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman found reasons for optimism in the recently-released Bureau of Labor statistics report, showing that Massachusetts has achieved an increase in union membership after having suffered a decline from 2009 to 2010 associated with the Great Recession.

"The labor movement stood on principle in this election and we will do so every time we have the chance"

Gov. Deval Patrick made casino gambling in Massachusetts a legal enterprise Tuesday, thrilling proponents who see the promise of jobs, tax revenue, and new entertainment options...

As the legislature finished its frantic closing days of the 2011 legislative session, four bills that were supported by the Mass. AFL-CIO reached the governor's desk and await his signature.

McCarthy, union member and former President of the Professional Fire Fighters of MA, received the endorsement of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO in his campaign for the Second Suffolk and Middlesex Senate District.

Frank Callahan, President of the 75,000 member Massachusetts Building Trades Council has been invited to participate in a select working group of state and local leaders which will meet with President Obama on Tuesday November 1st at the White House. The White House American Jobs Act Working Group will be sorting through and promoting policies to put millions of Americans back to work through badly needed investments in our transportation, education, and utility infrastructure.

Frank Callahan, President of the 75,000 member Massachusetts Building Trades Council has been invited to participate in a select working group of state and local leaders which will meet with President Obama on Tuesday November 1st at the White House. The White House American Jobs Act Working Group will be sorting through and promoting policies to put millions of Americans back to work through badly needed investments in our transportation, education, and utility infrastructure.

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NSLC Joins 10.2.10

March in DC

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Delegates vote ‘No, No, No’

on November Ballot Questions

 

On Friday, September 10, the Union Community Fund of Western Massachusetts (UCF) awarded seven grants totaling $6,935 as part of the annual Labor Breakfast hosted by the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. Approximately 175 union members and their political and community allies celebrated the cause of social and economic justice at the Castle of Knights in Chicopee.

Council President Richard M. Brown introduced a host of speakers, including Chicopee Mayor Mike Bissonnette; Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno; Attorney General Martha Coakley; George Noel, Director, Mass. Department of Labor; José Perez, 1199SEIU One Nation March Organizer; Frank Callahan, President, Mass. Building Trades Council; Tim Sullivan, Legislative and Communications Director, Mass. AFL-CIO; U.S. Rep. John Olver; and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal.

Brown presented the Labor Council’s Phil Duck Award for Community Service to Betty Agin, President, Universal Community Voices Eliminating Disparities. He presented the President’s Award – also known as the Unsung Hero award for union activism – to Steve Dondley, CEO, Prometheus Labor Communications.

Acting UCF Chair Corrine Durham presented the following grants:

Massachusetts Senior Action Council (MSAC) - $1000, for educational work regarding transportation issues facing seniors

Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts (N2N) - $1000, for educational work regarding a just and efficient implementation of the new CORI reforms

Northampton Living Wage Coalition (NLWC) - $1000, for educational work motivating employers to pay a living wage and to develop a website

Pioneer Valley Project (PVP) - $500, for an educational and recruitment project to meet mandates established by Springfield's new responsible employer and local hiring ordinances and by the state for highway construction

Western Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety & Health (WMCOSH) - $1800, for a project to educate refugees on workers’ compensation and sexual harassment before they join the workforce

Weston Center for Women - $1195, to purchase a vinyl plotter and starter supply for the Center, whose rehabilitation employment program serves women leaving jail or inpatient drug treatment

Women's Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) - $440, to underwrite WILD in the Winter, a leadership development program for women labor activists

The Union Community Fund, directed by a volunteer board of labor, community, and religious leaders, receives donations from the public, especially by payroll deduction agreements, and makes annual grants to non-profit organizations that fulfill the mission of “charity as solidarity.” Donations may be made to UCF, 640 Page Boulevard #101, Springfield MA 01104 .

The Pioneer Valley Central Labor Council is the voice of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of unions, in Hampden County and a few Hampshire County towns (Easthampton, Huntington, Southampton). The mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families - to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation. Central Labor Councils organize in the community to promote social justice for all working people. PVCLC’s 60 affiliates are Local Unions, Union Councils, and the Workers Center, Casa Obrera, in Springfield. It is a founding member of Western Massachusetts Jobs with Justice and the Pioneer Valley Project/Proyecto del Valle Pionero.

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After votes by its Executive Council’s Committee on Political Education (C.O.P.E.) on Thursday August 19, 2010, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO today announced its first round of endorsements in races for state and federal level offices.

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

CONTACT:    Tim Sullivan, Massachusetts AFL-CIO, 617-680-2344, tsullivan@massaflcio.org

                     Jim Farrell, PR First, 781-681-6616, jfarrell@prfirst.com

 

MassachusettsAFL-CIO Announces First Round of 2010 Election Endorsements

 

MALDEN, MA, ISSUED AUGUST 24, 2010…After votes by its Executive Council’s Committee on Political Education (C.O.P.E.) on Thursday August 19, 2010, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO today announced its first round of endorsements in races for state and federal level offices. In order to be eligible for endorsement, candidates for open state legislative seats must submit a letter requesting endorsement and complete a candidate questionnaire in advance of the meeting. For incumbent state legislators, a minimum 75-percent Labor Voting Record over the previous two successive legislative sessions (2007-2010) is required in addition to filling out a candidate questionnaire and requesting the endorsement in writing. Statewide officeseekers must complete a candidate questionnaire, participate in a candidates’ forum and request the endorsement in writing. Candidates for open congressional seats must request the endorsement in writing, fill out a candidate questionnaire and participate in a candidates’ forum. Federal level incumbents are endorsed based on their record of supporting working families in Massachusetts. All endorsements must be made by a two-thirds majority of the C.O.P.E. committee.

 

Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert J. Haynes praised all the endorsed candidates, saying: “These candidates for public office showed a commitment to working families not only in their performance as a candidate or elected official, but also in their pursuit of our endorsement. It is not easy to qualify for or earn our endorsement because working families expect the very best and most dedicated service on our behalf. Working families need these kinds of candidates to stand up to corporate greed and turn around our economy. We need candidates that understand how important workers and wage-earners are to our economic strength as a nation, and how important secure families are to building strong communities. We need elected officials with character, courage and commitment to fighting for the quality of life of all workers. These candidates demonstrated that kind of character, courage and commitment either through their campaigns or their service in office already. We are honored by their clear demonstration of support for the needs and concerns of working families, and we’ll put our entire political program to work to ensure they get elected and can vote and advocate for workers once in office.”

 

For elected officials involved in the legislative process, such as governor and state legislators, no endorsements were considered for those without primary challenges because the Mass. AFL-CIO believes there is still a great deal of legislative work to be done, especially on expanded gaming and on appropriating FMAP funds before the end of this session. The next Mass. AFL-CIO C.O.P.E. endorsement meeting will be held on September 22, 2010 in Fitchburg, MA. The endorsed candidates in the first round of endorsements, based almost exclusively on whether they were running in a contested primary, were as follows (parentheses indicate union membership):

 

 

For Congress:

 

District Attorney Bill Keating

for election in the 10th Congressional District

Congressman Stephen Lynch (IRON)

for re-election in the 9th Congressional District

Congressman Michael Capuano

for re-election in the 8th Congressional District

Congressman Edward Markey

for re-election in the 7th Congressional District

Congressman John Tierney

for re-election in the 6th Congressional District

Congresswoman Niki Tsongas

for re-election in the 5th Congressional District

Congressman Barney Frank

for re-election in the 4th Congressional District

Congressman Jim McGovern

for re-election in the 3rd Congressional District

Congressman Richard Neal

for re-election in the 2nd Congressional District

Congressman John Olver

for re-election in the 1st Congressional District

 

 

For Statewide Office:

 

Steve Grossman

 for election as State Treasurer

No Endorsement

for election as State Auditor

William Galvin

for election as Secretary of State

Martha Coakley

for election as Attorney General

 

 

For State Senate:

 

State Senator Sal DiDominico

for re-election in the Middlesex, Suffolk, and Essex district

State Senator Steven Tolman (TCIU)

for re-election in the Second Suffolk and Middlesex district

State Representative Michael Rush

for election in the Suffolk and Norfolk district

Ron Patenaude (UAW)

for election in the Hampden district

Michael Coogan (IAFF)

for election in the First Bristol and Plymouth district

Sheila Lyons

for election in the Cape and Islands district

 

 

For State Representative:

 

State Representative Christine Canavan

for re-election in the 10th Plymouth district

State Representative Sean Curran

for re-election in the 9th Hampden district

State Representative Mark Falzone

for re-election in the 9th Essex district

State Representative Pam Richardson

for re-election in the 6th Middlesex district

State Representative Rosemary Sandlin

for re-election in the 3rd Hampden district

State Representative Stephen Stat Smith

for re-election in the 28th Middlesex district

Tackey Chan

for election in the 2nd Norfolk district

Kevin Conway

for election in the 22nd Middlesex district

Mark Cusack

for election in the 5th Norfolk district

 

Josh Cutler

for election in the 6th Plymouth district

David Dennis

for election in the 8th Bristol district

Denise Garlick (MNA)

for election in the 13th Norfolk district

Barry Lawton (BTU)

for election in the 5th Suffolk district

Paul Mark (IBEW)

for election in the 2nd Berkshire district

Ray Medeiros (IBEW)

for election in the 9th Bristol district

Rhonda Nyman

for election in the 5th Plymouth district

Jared Parisella

for election in the 6th Essex district

 

 

For Governor’s Council:

Governor’s Councilor Kelly Timilty for re-election to District 2

Governor’s Councilor Marilyn Devaney for re-election to District 3

Terrence Kennedy for election to District 6

Fran Ford for election District 7

 

 

 

On Ballot Questions:

NO on Question 1

NO on Question 2

NO on Question 3

 

About the Massachusetts AFL-CIO

The Massachusetts AFL-CIO is the largest umbrella labor organization in the Commonwealth, representing hundreds of thousands of working families from member unions and serves as the voice of working families in Massachusetts. Offices are located at 389 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148. For additional information, call (781) 324-8230 or visit www.massaflcio.org. Robert J. Haynes is the President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. Tim Sullivan is the contact for the press and may be reached at (781) 324-8230.

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"Labor Day is about the American quality of life, the American Dream if you will. Labor Day is about working people. And working people can’t have a good quality of life and can’t attain the American Dream without one thing: JOBS."

Click the headline above to read President Haynes' full speech as prepared for delivery at the annual Greater Boston Labor Council Labor Day Breakfast, and for a link to a video of the speech.

Labor Day Remarks by Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes as Prepared for Delivery at the Greater Boston Labor Council's Annual Labor Day Breakfast

Click here to view a video of the speech.
 

Good morning brothers and sisters. Happy Labor Day! If you’d indulge me I’d like to begin by just taking a moment of silence in honor of the pizza delivery man, Richel Nova, who was callously killed for $100 and a pizza over the weekend. We often think of workers as plumbers or fire fighters or teachers or factory workers, but we cannot forget a guy like Mr. Nova who was just trying to get by and gets killed in a senseless and inhumane act.

Even beyond that killing, there isn’t much good news lately that would make this a Happy Labor Day, is there?

With all the bad news about the economy, and the joblessness facing workers with unemployment stubbornly hovering around 9-percent for over a year, with all the frustration of our members and all working families, I am willing to bet you’re expecting me to stand up here and pound the podium and curse and demand action from politicians. You probably want me to call them out and make some headlines by going after all the politicians at every level of government. There’s probably an over-under on how many f-bombs I’ll drop.

But I have news for everyone on this Labor Day: It’s not about politicians. According to Samuel Gompers himself: “Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country. Labor Day...is devoted to no man, living or dead.”

It’s about us. ALL OF US. It’s about our country, in fact.

Labor Day is about the American quality of life, the American Dream if you will. Labor Day is about working people. And working people can’t have a good quality of life and can’t attain the American Dream without one thing: JOBS. And this Labor Day is the worst I can remember in terms of jobs and in terms of the state of working families.

It is pretty evident that the turn of this century is far too familiar to the turn of the last century. It was at the turn of the last century where workers began to fight back against greed and abuse and concentration of wealth. It was 1888 when workers in Massachusetts demanded Labor Day become a state holiday. It was in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland, notoriously anti-union, signed the law to make Labor Day a national holiday.

The movement for a national Labor Day stemmed from the Pullman railcar workers’ strike. Fed up with unsafe working conditions, tired of being forced to live in company homes, sick of buying their food from company grocers, disgusted with being forced to draw their checks from company banks, and incensed at the low wages and lack of respect by the Pullman company, these workers stood up and fought back. They stood up and fought back because the country had gone into a deep recession, and things had gotten even worse on the job. Workers were laid off and wages were continually cut. Sound familiar?

Well the Pullman railcar workers said, Enough is enough! They were joined by the American Railway Union and their famous leader, Eugene Debs. Together the Pullman railcar workers and Debs’ Railway union essentially shut down the entire American railway system. What did President Grover Cleveland do? He sent 12,000 American soldiers, who opened fire on the striking workers, he jailed Eugene Debs, and he forced the Pullman workers to sign a statement that they would never again join a union.

The anti-union sentiment and the oppressive treatment of working people should shock us today. But they sound too familiar, don’t they? They might not be sending in soldiers with guns, but the anti-union forces are sending in the cavalry in other ways that are turning back the clock on working people in this country.

Labor Day became a holiday that someone as anti-union as Grover Cleveland would sign into law because of fears of extremism, anarchy and riotous outbursts by workers. A workers’ holiday already existed. It was called May Day and it commemorated another riot, at Haymarket in Chicago, in which workers were killed. May Day had come to be a vehicle for the most extremist elements of the Labor Movement, and had fallen prey to protests for things other than wages, benefits and working conditions. Afraid May Day would come to commemorate the Haymarket Riot and lead to other riots, calls for anarchy and overthrowing government, and attempts to wreak havoc and disorder across the nation, both Samuel Gompers and President Cleveland sought to invent a new holiday to commemorate workers. And here we are on Labor Day.

So to recap: Labor Day came about because workers were being oppressed, wages were atrocious, benefits were non-existent, working conditions were deadly, and profits by companies remained high. Labor Day came about because of layoffs, shrinking wages, and too few jobs. Labor Day came about because workers got too little for their outsized contributions to capitalist enterprise, and too few elite, rich bastards were hording all the money they were making on the backs of workers. Labor Day also came about because the real workers’ holiday, May Day, was seen as too susceptible to extreme elements and anger.

Is it just me, or does today’s current Tea Party Movement sound way too much like the beginnings of Labor Day and the American Labor Movement? It’s FRIGHTENING the similarities. Fortunately, though, there is one huge difference.

Labor Day and the American Labor Movement used anger to stop oppression and to stop the constant tearing down of people. Labor Day meant bringing people together for everyone’s benefit, not tearing people apart. Unions stood up and focused anger right smack dab at the source of our hardships. We went after greed and we went after cheating. We went after corporate and Robber Baron bastards in their ivory towers who built higher towers the lower they could force workers down. We stood up for each other. We banded together. We fought and rallied and died together, not out of spite, not out of jealousy, not out of sheer, blind, aimless frustration – but because we know we deserved better and we knew we could get better results and build a better country by working together.

Today’s Tea Party and the attitude that led 49-percent of our members to back the Tea Party candidate in last January’s election to replace Senator Kennedy, is the opposite of what this country needs. We are falling prey to blind anger and we’re too susceptible to the Pied Pipers and Agents of Anger like Sarah Palin and Glen Beck. We’re letting these fakers tear us apart and tear this country down. Yes it’s long passed time that we say Enough is Enough again! But let’s be careful who we say it to. Let’s be smart like our predecessors. Let’s channel our anger and frustration to rebuilding this country and creating jobs so we can rebuild families. Let’s proudly rebuild the middle class. Let’s stop pointing the finger at each other just because there are fewer and fewer spots to sit in the game of middle class musical chairs. We shouldn’t be criticizing public employees for having decent wages, decent benefits, and collective bargaining agreements. We shouldn’t be saying, “I don’t have it so they shouldn’t.” We should be saying – no, we should be screaming – that if I don’t have it myself, then dammit I want it! If you don’t have a pension, demand one! If your health care sucks, demand better! If they can just lay you off and fire you for no good reason, then demand a union contract and a union card to protect yourself!

If workers don’t start demanding better and standing up for ourselves to raise the standards in this country, we’ll be right back at the Pullman strike living in company tents, eating company food, cashing lowball company checks, living company lives and dying company deaths. It used to be survival of the fittest, and every generation seeking to be better than the last. Now it’s the race to the bottom and workers seem content to helplessly trudge downhill as long as everyone else is trudging downhill right next to them. We have to start pushing each other uphill again.

Because I can assure you of one thing: For every Tea Party rally and rant by regular working people – for every letter to the editor or talk radio caller who’s a regular worker that bashes and bitches about public employees – there is a really small group of ultra-rich elites laughing their asses off at us. They have us right where they want us. And we let them put us there. No more! Not this Labor Day!

Private employers cut 10,000 jobs in August. There is a 10-year low in construction spending. This, even though they have $1.8 Trillion – with a T – in reserves just sitting there. They force layoffs, wage cuts, and concessions across the workforce, even though the stock market has rebounded, the banks are bailed out, and the profits are back to setting records. A recent report from the Institute for Policy Studies tells us something that we’ve known for years, but it’s nice to have the science to back it up. They reported that top executives make more than their counterparts when they cut payrolls. That’s right, they get rewarded for putting Americans out of work. CEO’s of the top 50 firms that laid off the most workers in this recession took in 42-percent more than their peers who did not lay off as many workers. How insane is that? Here we are watching the middle class vanish before our very eyes, and these guys are making tens of millions more than usual for speeding us along!

Mark Hurd, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, who by all other accounts and measures was a failure of a CEO, made $24.2 Million after laying off 6,400 workers in 2009. Then, after being accused of sexual harassment, he walked away with a $40 Million severance package.

William Welder, the CEO of Johnson and Johnson, made $25.6 Million, which was three times the average CEO pay, while he cut 9,000 jobs. Not bad for a guy who also oversaw a huge drug recall scandal.

Fred Hassan, the CEO of Shering-Plough pharmaceutical company, got a $33 Million golden parachute for merging with Merck and laying off 16,000 people. He made a total of $50 Million in 2009.

The $598 Million in total compensation to the top 50 CEO layoff leaders could have provided a full month of unemployment benefits to the 531,363 workers they laid off. Sick of it yet?

Les Leopold wrote a great column earlier in the year entitled “Why are 25 Hedge Fund Managers Worth 658,000 Teachers.” This math is scary.

Are we pissed off yet? Are we seeing what’s happening here? The Chamber of Commerce and big business in this state and around this nation are funding political candidates at amounts never before seen in history. We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars that big business and the bankers, brokers and bastards who ruined our economy are spending to elect candidates to carry their agenda. These economic Benedict Arnolds who outsource and offshore, who cut and fire and endanger workers all in the name of the almighty dollar, these bastards who wouldn’t know economic patriotism if it hit them in the face – they are running the show. They’re behind the curtain like the Wizard of Oz pulling the strings on the Tea Party and pushing the buttons of angry workers, hoping we’ll elect people who don’t care about us just because they sound as angry as we feel.

Earlier this year we worked with the Boston Labor Council to host a rally at Bank of America to demand that these scurrilous economic traitors start lending again so businesses can start to hire again and we can start building things again. About 100 people showed up, and they’re probably all in this room right now. Sarah Palin goes to the Boston Common for a crazy Tea Party rally and 4,000 people show up. Of course, 2,000 people were there to protest the other 2,000 that were there to support the Tea Party. Sounds like a circular firing squad to me.

It’s very clear that in such difficult times, in such times of stress, strife, and struggle, in such a state of disillusion, despair, and disappointment, that workers now have forgotten the lessons of our predecessors. That is why we need a strong Labor Movement. That is why we need strong unions and strong union leaders to stand up and educate our members. That is why the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, this Labor Council, the national AFL-CIO, and all your local unions have to get out there and tell your members who’s really to blame, who really created this mess, who continues to perpetuate it, and what politician puppets they’re electing to continue to execute our demise.

It’s the bankers, the brokers and the bastards, period. It’s their fault. It’s their doing. They’ve been doing it in earnest for 30 years, and it finally came to a head after eight years of Bushonomics. Yet barely 2 years removed from the worst president in history, and people want to throw out the Democrats. It’s like someone giving you a disease and disappearing, and then the doctor comes in to tell you what they gave you and how to treat it, and you’re so pissed off that you throw the doctor out of the emergency room. We have to be better than that. We have to be smarter than that.

But we need help, and this is where I will say it is about politicians. If you want people to stop voting against their best interests; if you want people to stop following Sarah Palin and listening to Glen Beck; if you want people to stop voting for the Scott Browns of the world – then dammit, start acting like Democrats and start acting like you care about working people. Start listening to us for Godsakes. We know how to fix this economy. We know what people need. They need jobs. And they need them to be good jobs. They need higher wages, good benefits, and safe working conditions. They need security and they need restored purchasing power. They need to become taxpayers again. Again, all this can happen with the creation of jobs. And we know how to make this happen. Stop casting us aside. Stop ignoring us. Stop half-listening. Start giving us something to pass on to our members. Start providing some EVIDENCE. Some ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

Our members, and workers everywhere, have shown that they are open-minded and willing to consider supporting anyone who seems like they care about our needs. I’m asking Democrats – all of you, at every level of government – to do something that we can proudly tell our members about. Give us something so when someone says “They had two years to fix it,” we can say they are working to fix it, this is what they’ve done, and what they’ll continue to do. Don’t leave casinos on the one yard line. 1,000 potential extra slot machines is no reason to tell 15,000 workers that the jobs they could almost taste have disappeared. Whether someone accepts the extra 1,000 slot machines, or someone accepts 1,000 fewer slot machines, no worker and no voter will accept politicians choosing 0 jobs over 15,000 jobs. Get back in there and get it done – all of you, as soon as possible. Then we’ll get out there and tell our members that you’ve acted in a way that puts workers first. Don’t leave the FMAP money sitting in some bank account somewhere while people get laid off and services suffer. Get in there and allocate the money. Do something that makes it clear that you’re more worried about working peoples’ lives than you are your own careers. Then we’ll go out and kill ourselves working hard to make sure our members and all workers know the best candidates to voter for. But don’t expect us to have any success when our only argument is that you have a D beside your name or that you’re an incumbent. Show some urgency and show some leadership. Most of all, show some compassion and concern for the havoc this recession is wreaking on real people.

If you do that, and if unions do our job of channeling that anger like our predecessors did at the turn of the last century, then next year, as we begin the second decade of this century, I can say Happy Labor Day with a straight face and a genuine smile. Thank you.
 

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 Governor Deval Patrick, seeking to shore up an uneasy relationship with organized labor, highlighted his administration’s record of helping unions and their members yesterday but struck a defiant tone, saying he would not pander for their support.

“I am proud to be a Democrat and proud to be prolabor,’’ Patrick said at yesterday’s Labor Day breakfast in Boston, an annual union and political rally that starts the campaign season in earnest. “But I am not the governor of the Democrats. I am not the governor of labor.’’

Continue reading @ Boston.com

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 Governor Deval Patrick, seeking to shore up an uneasy relationship with organized labor, highlighted his administration’s record of helping unions and their members yesterday but struck a defiant tone, saying he would not pander for their support.

“I am proud to be a Democrat and proud to be prolabor,’’ Patrick said at yesterday’s Labor Day breakfast in Boston, an annual union and political rally that starts the campaign season in earnest. “But I am not the governor of the Democrats. I am not the governor of labor.’’

Continue reading @ Boston.com

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 WORCESTER —  The annual Central Massachusetts AFL-CIO Labor Day Breakfast is typically an event for local Democrats to feel their strength, but this year, labor leaders seemed to be gritting their teeth and readying for a fight. 

Republican candidates emboldened by the success of U.S. Sen. Scott P. Brown and the popularity of the tea party movement are mounting challenges to such local Democrats as Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray and U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern.

Continue reading @ Telegram

Do not show title Do not show body text

 WORCESTER —  The annual Central Massachusetts AFL-CIO Labor Day Breakfast is typically an event for local Democrats to feel their strength, but this year, labor leaders seemed to be gritting their teeth and readying for a fight. 

Republican candidates emboldened by the success of U.S. Sen. Scott P. Brown and the popularity of the tea party movement are mounting challenges to such local Democrats as Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray and U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern.

Continue reading @ Telegram

read more

"Labor Day is about the American quality of life, the American Dream if you will. Labor Day is about working people. And working people can’t have a good quality of life and can’t attain the American Dream without one thing: JOBS."

 

Click the headline above to read President Haynes' full speech as prepared for delivery at the annual Greater Boston Labor Council Labor Day Breakfast, and for a link to a video of the speech.

read more

Mike Bagge believes Labor Day was made a holiday for all the hardworking folks like him.

"You know what I think? Christmas is for kids. Thanksgiving is for the whole family," he said in his shop on Kuniholm Drive, Holliston. "Labor Day is my holiday because I've worked so hard all my life."

Since 2003, Bagge, 51, has owned East Coast Perfection Coatings with shops in Holliston and Framingham. He works 50 hours a week with 10 employees covering pliers and wire strippers with electricity-resistant insulation.

Keep reading @ Milford Daily News

Mike Bagge believes Labor Day was made a holiday for all the hardworking folks like him.

 

"You know what I think? Christmas is for kids. Thanksgiving is for the whole family," he said in his shop on Kuniholm Drive, Holliston. "Labor Day is my holiday because I've worked so hard all my life."

Since 2003, Bagge, 51, has owned East Coast Perfection Coatings with shops in Holliston and Framingham. He works 50 hours a week with 10 employees covering pliers and wire strippers with electricity-resistant insulation.

 

read more