Washington conservative think tank to boycott Labor Day by working Monday.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A conservative group in Olympia, Washington has vowed to boycott Labor Day because of the holiday’s association with labor unions.

According to the Seattle Times, business backed conservative think tank the Freedom Foundation plans to protest the national holiday by refusing to take Monday off and having a “work-in” all day instead.

“I can’t think of a problem in society that can’t be traced in some way back to the abuses of organized labor, so it would be hypocritical of us to take a day off on its behalf,” said the Freedom Foundation’s CEO Tom McCabe.

Times columnist Danny Westneat pointed out that if McCabe really wants to protest union-led reforms in the workplace, then he should work every Saturday, as well.

“What’s odd about it, though,” Westneat wrote, “is that only 12 percent of American workers even belong to unions anymore. Yet we — I say ‘we’ because I’m in that 12 percent — somehow retain an almost supernatural mind-meld authority over the oppressed and hapless other 88 percent.”

Freedom Foundation materials call public labor unions a “disease” that is “running rampant” in Washington state.

Westneat pointed to Seattle-based company Boeing’s fiasco with the 787 Dreamliner jet-building program, in which Boeing management ran rough-shod over union protests about how the massive jetliners were being built.

“The 787 is now being called ‘a case study in how not to build an airplane,’” Westneat said. The jets were grounded all over the world after serious problems were found in their electrical systems and fuel lines, costing the company billions.

“It was the workers who warned that the program wasn’t going to fly, and management who ignored them,” Westneat wrote. “Yet it was management who were handsomely rewarded, while the workers — when they weren’t saving the Dreamliner debacle from imploding — who had their retirements slashed.”


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/30/washington-conservative-think-tank-to-boycott-labor-day-by-working-monday/

Maybe McCabe should take it a step further and require 12 hour days 6 days a week. Let's see how many loyal employees he has.

[louis-t]

1. Hate hate hate hate.

It's all these people know.

[caraher]

2. I have to work that day

For reasons I've not research it seems private liberal arts colleges don't observe the holiday and never have.

I really should just go teach labor history all day even though I'm a physicist...

[yallerdawg]

3. Next, let's get rid of public school...

and get back to teaching our children the traditional American work ethic, which of course involves shops and sweat.

The conservatives are busy thinking of ways to get America back to labor wage competitive, and bring those exported jobs back to us. After all, if wages are the same worldwide, think of the extra profit from saving on shipping costs!

[hifiguy]

4. Well, there is a brass-plated, four-door asshole.

One might also say an ambulatory turd.

[Populist_Prole]

6. You got that right. Well said, if even a bit restrained for my taste.

I've even heard from right wing assholes; either in person, or media pundits or RW chain emails that bemoan the concept of labor day or honoring labor in general. As if we should all celebrate capital as the goose that lays golden eggs for us.

Some ask "why not capital day?" Why? It's like with mother's/father's days and some kids ask "How come there's no kid's day?". The normal response: Every day is kid's day.

It's been freaking "capital day" for 8,700+ days since 1980; when the modern war on labor was unveiled. You think they could keep their opinions to themselves for one damned day a year. But no.

[Johnyawl]

5. Tom McCabe is out of step with the people of Washington and totally irrelevant...

...the last time he organized a protest (can't even recall what it was for) 15 people showed up. He will say and do anything to garner a little publicity, and the stinking Seattle Times will give it to him. (Danny Westneat aside the Seattle Times is a putrid rightwing rag)

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. Many I know refer to the Seattle Times as the BFN - Blethen Family Newsletter

When owner Frank Blethen isn't getting drunk and shooting his neighbors' dogs he's advocating elimination of the inheritance tax.