LABOR DAY MUSINGS

One of my earliest memories is when my grandparents took me to a Labor Day Parade in downtown Los Angeles – I must have been five or six years old. I remember bands, and marching units of men carrying banners. At the time, I had no idea what labor represented, but I sure did like the parade!

I know now that Labor Day honors hard working men and women who form an essential part of the economic body that helps generates America’s prosperity. Today I join with other Americans in the Holiday tribute to labor.

Nowadays, it seems that a politician must label him (or her) self as “Pro-Management” or “Pro-Labor,” and never the twain shall meet. That’s ridiculous, of course. Management can’t exist without a workforce, and labor doesn’t have jobs without someone creating and managing the jobs. To use a fancy word, labor and management need a “symbiotic” relationship – one entity helping the other, so that one plus one equals more than two. In the best of times, the legitimate goals of labor and management are in counterbalance or, to put it another way, it’s a “win-win” situation for both and, from a Pollyanna perspective, should have little to do with one’s political party.

My goal in the legislature and on the committees on which I serve, like the Labor and Commerce Committee, is to help keep a “win-win” balance between labor and management for the benefit of all Alaskans. On labor and management issues, such as the worker’s compensation debate and votes, the political pressures on legislators from “everybody and their uncle” is (as an understatement) “interesting.” I keep my aspirin handy.