A Day to Ponder--Lost jobs and the American worker

Labor Day has been around for 115 years. The day means different things to different people—the end of summer; the beginning of school; a day for parades, barbecues and relaxation; a day at the Lake Worth beach—and a day off from just laboring. It used to be a day of celebrating and saying "Take this job and shove it" at least for one day out of the year.

14.9 million American workers are unemployed as of end of August 2009. See Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is one of the worst recessions/depressions in American history with more people unemployed than in the Great Depression. That depression lingered on for 8 years until the government started drafting men for our inevitable involvement in World War II. Where once the American worker was supreme and they accepted a decent wage for a day's work, we now have a different problem. Union demands have forced many taxpayer bailed out corporations and others to move off-shore, using the labor of foreign countries thus building up their economies. Here in Lake Worth, the demands of the unions are a direct cause of a lot of our budget problems and the lay-offs of more city employees.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is not designed to identify the legal status of workers. The only question that is the least bit relative to it asks whether the respondent is born outside the United States. This shows that foreign-born workers accounted for 15.6% of the labor force in 2008.

I would bet that the majority of these unemployed American citizens want a job as soon as possible as benefits are running out; they are losing their homes, their automobiles, their health insurance and just fighting to survive. That is all they are thinking about today—putting food on the table for their families.

Today, as we celebrate the American worker, it is a good day to start demanding better protection for all those who have helped make this country great. The Unions should start getting realistic. The government should vote in E-Verify not just for federal contractors but all Employers.