Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Labor Day Weekend

It almost seems a misnomer; Labor Day Weekend. A time to celebrate the working men and women of this country, and to celebrate the Labor movement. So, how do we celebrate? We work! That's right, from Kansas City on Sunday with a labor walk and kick-off campaign, to parades in St Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield. There was a GREAT turnout for the campaign kick-off in Kansas City on Sunday. Emmanuel Cleaver (MO-5) and Senate candidate Robin Carnahan both came to speak. There was a Labor Walk that followed, with the candidates themselves taking part. For those people that had a 3 day weekend, to get them to come out in the middle of it and take part was great for our movement. Who says the excitement isn't there this year? Anthoney Mitchell and Ramon Bullard deserve kudos for a job well done.
Certainly the excitement level was high in St Louis on Labor Day itself; there were more than 100 letter carriers (and the St Louis Letter Carrier Band) in the St Louis Labor Day parade. There were union activists and members in all directions and quite a good crowd of on-lookers. Letter Carriers were well represented and well received- many parade goers gave us the thumbs-up, or shouted their support to us. Some of us had our 5 Day is the Wrong Way shirts on, and we were led in chants along the route saying exactly that! Hopefully this excitement can carry over and we can use these activists all the way until Nov.2! My congratulations to Billy Lister and the good folks from Branch 343 for a job well done.
Though I did not attend the Springfield parade, word is that they had a great crowd and the Letter Carriers were well represented. We will be down in that area this weekend, as the Southwest District meeting is Saturday night in Joplin. Come find out what you can do to help us, and in turn, help yourselves.