We'll fight for your bargaining rights, Biden tells union members in Labor Day rally

[Faygo Kid]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Protecting collective bargaining rights was the primary message of the Labor Day festivities in Detroit Monday, both in the annual parade which attracted tens of thousands of union members and during a speech by Vice President Joe Biden.

“They don’t believe in your very right to bargain,” Biden told the crowd of about 3,500 people standing next to the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit.

“These guys don’t get it. Right to work means the right to work for less. As long as we’re here, it will not happen.” . . .

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20120903/NEWS15/120903017/We-ll-fight-your-bargaining-rights-Biden-tells-union-members-Labor-Day-rally

---

Joe Biden on Labor Day!

[goclark]

1. Go Joe!

[DJ13]

3. Not yet, but they're still looking

[OnyxCollie]

16. They'll tweet you when they find 'em. nt

[rogrot]

4. MI state legislature

After MI votes for Obama, their next job will be to get the anti-union, anti-worker, anti-education, anti-middle class, anti-poor governor and legislature out of office, fix the damage they've done to the state in two years if they can, and make MI a worker and family friendly state once again.

If anyone knows how to reprogram a brainwashed republican voter to understand what it means to vote against your own interests, please mention it here. Thanks!

[Faygo Kid]

5. Welcome to DU, and welcome to the fight. This time I know our side will win.

You obviously care about our state. I say "our" even though I now live in Maryland and commute to DC, because Michigan is where I am from and will always be Home (Go Green!). I don't care who is in office, they are getting an unreconstructed lib moving back to the greatest state in the union. Anyway, thanks for joining us.

[rogrot]

6. Thanks Faygo Kid

Even more than MI, I care about the promise of this great country to its citizens: The American Dream. I was born in a time when a parent could leave the home every day, work hard and provide his/her family with the dream. I don't understand why so many voters can't see this fact. I went to Carnegie Mellon University, at the time one of the most expensive schools in the country, on a gov. 1958 NDEA loan, became a teacher and paid off my loan in 4 years, because 10% of the principle was forgiven for every year I taught. I remember, they sent back a payment saying your loan will be paid in full if you teach one more year. This year, I'm starting my 42nd year of successful teaching in Eastern public schools. I want to thank American taxpayers and congress for that opportunity. I came from a family at the poverty level. Now, because of the stinginess and myopia of our congress, kids come out of school with 10's of K's worth of debt which they may never pay off, especially since they can't get anything but a minimum wage service job.

To fix this, we've had an obstructive republican congress who believes in three important agendas, 1) destroy our great POTUS (who happens to be AA), 2) to be reelected and 3) to advance the agenda of wealthy corporations and banks, in part, by keeping our war machine busy. Many of them are quite wealthy and their families are pretty much set for life. Most of them don't send their kids to Iraq or Afghanistan.

This is sick and, as we are seeing, tragic. Why don't voters understand what's happening to them?

We've got to figure out some way to make the right sit down and stay put until this awful truth can be drilled into them in a way they can understand it. As it is now, the two sides are talking past one another, the right continues to allow brainwashing by talking heads and the left talks to each other.

Check out Bill Moyer's show on PBS yesterday.

[Faygo Kid]

7. I saw Moyer's show, and welcome. We need you here, and in the fight.

42 years of teaching. You have left a greater legacy than any rapacious corporate raider like Mitt Romney (with all due respect to his parents, who he has spit upon).

Keep posting.

[slipslidingaway]

15. Thanks, very interesting ...

"...I went to Carnegie Mellon University, at the time one of the most expensive schools in the country, on a gov. 1958 NDEA loan, became a teacher and paid off my loan in 4 years, because 10% of the principle was forgiven for every year I taught. I remember, they sent back a payment saying your loan will be paid in full if you teach one more year..."

and welcome to DU

[oldsarge54]

8. Nice to Know

Looking through the news and seeing stories about sales, expectations of sales, and how businesses are trying to lure customers into sales, it is nice to see someone remembers the significance of this holiday. Remember, the Republican platform is nothing more than an attempt to cancel ALL that has been achieved in the last century, which the possible exception of female suffrage (even Republican males realize they have to sleep sometime). Vivat labor!

[lutefisk]

9. um... remember Wisconsin?

The administration didn't lift a finger to help. It stings just a little to hear this tough talk, now.

Of course I'm voting for Obama/Biden, but this is insulting.

[Faygo Kid]

10. Insulting? I hear you about Wisconsin, but c'mon - Romney/Ryan?

I resent that you call my post insulting.

Plus, Grandma and Mom made lutefisk every holiday for my family, and even though I couldn't stand the fish, I loved the cream sauce. So take it back.

[lutefisk]

11. Okay, I'll take back insulting...

But I wasn't saying your post was insulting, just what I see as the disingenuous nature of Biden's campaign talk.

And cream sauce on lutefisk? Just pure melted butter and salt, here.

[mike_c]

12. talk is cheap...

...but actions count. Where was the administration when Wisconsin republicans took away collective bargaining rights? Where were they when other states tried to limit collective bargaining? When will they take a stand against right to work for less laws already undermining collective bargaining?
This is just more hot air during campaign season, to be promptly disavowed and forgotten once elected.

[Sherman A1]

13. Precisely

I am still waiting for the EFCA.

[Selatius]

17. The Employee Free-Choice Act was dead in the Senate before it got there.

You could blame plenty of Blue Dog Democrats in the Senate for that failure. They needed 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a certain Republican filibuster, and the Blue Dogs didn't go for it.

The same song and dance basically played out over the Public Option in the health insurance bill that they passed into law. That was junked in the end as well.

[Sherman A1]

18. Agreed

But sometimes you need to fight for things, even if the end results will not be to your liking.

[Selatius]

20. I would've forced them to filibuster out in the open.

Don't just fold every time Republicans threaten a filibuster. Make them physically filibuster the bill, and hold a vote repeatedly for cloture just to get all those right-wing Democrats and Republicans on actual record. If after a couple of tries, you can't get those few right-wing Democrats to vote for cloture on debate, then you fold your tent and go home but not before.

[Marrah_G]

14. LOL heard this before

Something about comfortable shoes.

[blkmusclmachine]

19. Teachers Unions need not apply.

[AnneD]

21. I was wondering....

If that included the Chicago Teachers....or were they going to let Rham walk that picket line for them. I'll vote for Obama, but only because I couldn't stomach Romney. That is far from a ringing endorsement. I am spending my money and time on local issues, where you canstill be heard.