A Very True Labor Day

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagovich, Sen. Dick Durbin, and a thousand or so people spent a hot, sunny Labor Day afternoon with our families at the Meredosia High School.

The workers of the Celanese Factory were locked out about three months ago before they could vote on a contract. Scabs had been holed up in a local hotel and were unleashed on the factory. Since then the company has brought more and more dire contracts to the table, slashing jobs, and decreasing wages by an incredible margin. Jeremy's family is fighting hard, alongside the rest of the Union, against the unfair labor practices and bad-faith negotiating tactis of Celanese.

The rally was great. Apparently, the newspaper believed there to be only 700 there, but the place was packed. We about doubled the town population, so at least 1000. Gov. Rod was helicoptered in, but was at least thirty minutes late (recently he was 40 minutes late for an important funeral). All the speakers were appropriately full of passion.

Some of the participants, a large portion of them, marched about a mile or two through the town to the old train depot for further demonstrating, fundraising, etc. In the local paper is a picture of the marchers. We were all out front right behind the banner and are discernible in the picture. Does that add to my FBI file?

For more information on this situation go to Boilermakers Local 484.