Thursday, September 2, 2010

State of the Union September 2, 2010

Sept. 2, 2010 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

Postings for 63b moves will be adjusted for the Labor Day Holiday. Body shop and material openings will be posted at the main entrance through Tuesday, Sept. 7.

August sales results were announced yesterday. Here are the van numbers:
2010 2009 Change Share
Ford Econoline 10,251 5,350 + 91.6% 60.8%
GM 5,750 6,436 - 10.7% 34.1%
Mercedes Sprinter 848 --- --- 5.0%
Ford Transit 2,025 2,220 - 8.8%


GM press release: The fully integrated and dedicated Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) option, available this fall for Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size vans, will be priced at $15,910 MSRP, General Motors announced Tuesday. Pricing for the all-inclusive CNG option includes a dedicated CNG system ($14,590), a natural gas-capable Vortec 6.0L V8 engine ($1,295), as well as HD trailering equipment ($265). A $240 credit for deleting the spare tire brings the package price to $15,910. So the total cost of either a 2011 Chevrolet Express or 2011 GMC Savana Cargo model, which starts at $25,980 would be $41,890 with the CNG option.
•    Reminder: The annual Labor Day Parade will be Monday, Sept. 6. This year’s theme is “Buck up for a Brother or Sister”. We will meet at 7 am to decorate the float at 19th Street north of Olive. We have the 8th spot in the parade, which begins at 9 am. There will be refreshments after the parade at Memorial Plaza.
See back side for some history on Labor Day

The History of Labor Day: How it Came About: What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers. Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold." But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883. In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.
Source: Department of Labor

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