Labor Day is a time to reflect upon the enormous contributions working people have made to our nation. But Labor Day should also be an occasion for progressive activists across the country to call attention to the egregious assault that the Bush administration has waged against the very people that helped to make our nation strong.

Every vital statistic concerning the health of our country’s middle-class is headed in the wrong direction. Since President Bush took office, the cost of college tuition, the incidence of home foreclosures and the number of uninsured Americans have all increased — while corporate profits have skyrocketed and median income has tumbled.

As AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee details in his latest contribution to the Huffington Post, this is not mere coincidence but rather a direct result of President Bush’s failed policies and misguided priorities.

Says McEntee of Bush’s hollow rhetoric:

Last Labor Day, President Bush proclaimed that the working people of America “build better lives for themselves and their families and make America stronger.” In 2008, when we elect a President who stands with working families instead of against them, we will make those words ring true.

Read the full post.

President George W. Bush came to office promising to privatize more than 450,000 federal jobs. For more than six years, he has tried to implement his radical agenda to cut vital public services. In his most recent blog on the Huffington Post, President McEntee takes aim at a cynical letter President Bush issued to commemorate Public Service Recognition Week.

President McEntee writes: “Never has the White House had an occupant more opposed to public service and more intent on destroying the institutions of government that people rely on for security, safety and support. He’s filled the federal government with political appointees of low character and even lower competence, driving outstanding career employees away from their jobs.”

History was made this week in Maryland, where Governor Martin O’Malley became the first governor in the United States to sign living-wage legislation. The new law requires state contractors to pay at least $8.50 an hour to workers in most of Maryland, while contractors in the more expensive Baltimore-Washington area must pay $11.30 an hour.

President McEntee notes in his most recent blog on the Huffington Post that “Maryland’s new law is an important victory not just for underpaid workers in that state, but for workers across the country.” He also highlights recent developments in the battle custodians are waging for fair pay in the University of California system (AFSCME Local 3299).

This week, the custodians received some great support from students at UC-Berkeley who took over the business school. These young people are doing their part to support the cause of working people, not just on their campus, but throughout the country.

In a move typical of President Bush, he recently placed a right-wing operative who has written that Social Security “should be sent to the slaughterhouse” into a top spot at the Social Security administration. At the same time, Mr. Bush chose a new White House regulatory czar who wants to ease arsenic standards in our drinking water.

In his newest blog on Huffington Post, President McEntee points out how these moves by President Bush are part of a ruthless GOP agenda to eviscerate public services and turn even more government functions over to privateers. President McEntee argues that if the GOP wins the 2008 Presidential and congressional elections, they will roll back our recent gains and advance their reckless agenda for America’s future. “We ignore their plans at our peril,” he warns.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi stood up for working families today by marshaling decisive support for critical legislation to guarantee workers the freedom to join unions free of employer interference.

The Employee Free Choice Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday by a vote of 241-185 after Speaker Pelosi made it one of her priority legislative agenda items.

Under current labor law, employers often use a combination of legal and illegal methods to silence employees who attempt to form unions and bargain for better wages and working conditions. When faced with organizing drives, 25 percent of employers fire at least one pro-union worker; 51 percent threaten to close a worksite if the union prevails; and 91 percent force employees to attend anti-union meetings with their supervisors.

The Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field by strengthening penalties against offending employers; requiring mediation and arbitration to help employers and employees reach a first contract in a reasonable period of time; and permitting workers to form a union through “majority sign-up,” where workers sign authorization cards as demonstration of their choice to belong to a union. (Majority sign-up makes a critical difference in the lives of real AFSCME members. To read about one such example, click here.)

While the Employee Free Choice Act passed the House convincingly, the margin was not wide enough to sustain a presidential veto. Predictably, the Bush administration immediately promised to veto the Act should it pass the Senate.

In a statement, AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee said, “It is unconscionable that President Bush plans to veto the freedom of working people to join together for a voice at work. Without a legislative remedy, federally sanctioned worker harassment will continue to be the unwritten law of our land.”

McEntee noted that Bush’s promised torpedo-ing of the Employee Free Choice Act was his second-anti-worker veto threat of the week!

“Earlier this week, we learned he even plans to veto anti-terrorism legislation if Congress includes collective bargaining protections for airline screeners,” McEntee stated. “President Bush has never met a workplace protection he did not wish to veto.”

On Wednesday, AFSCME is sponsoring a Democratic Presidential Forum in Carson City, Nevada. This forum, moderated by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, will give eight Democratic presidential candidates the opportunity to meet with more than 700 AFSCME members to discuss the issues that affect working families.

Why Nevada? In his latest contribution to The Huffington Post, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee explains why, in 2008 presidential politics, the story of “how the West was won” will be the story of “how the West Wing was won” by the Democrats.

George W. Bush’s State of the Union speech revealed a president who is “dangerously out of touch with reality.” So says AFSCME President Gerald McEntee in a statement released after last night’s address before Congress: “In November, Americans voted for a new direction, not new rhetoric dressed up as reform. [Last night], George W. Bush missed what may be his last opportunity to listen to the American people and meaningfully tackle the challenges we face.”

Read McEntee’s full response to the State of the Union speech.

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman was dangerously wrong about the Iraq War. Now, in his latest contribution to The Huffington Post, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee launches a pre-emptive strike before Friedman can influence opinions on another topic the scribe frequently screws up: economics.

It has been a month since the Democrats took back Congress, but you don’t see House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi and incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pounding their chests or making partisan proclamations about their newly acquired political capital. Instead, they’re championing a consensus legislative agenda geared toward helping middle-class families that have been left behind by the GOP, notes AFSCME President Gerald McEntee.

According to McEntee, AFSCME played a huge role in delivering victories on Election Day, and now he describes in his latest contribution to the Huffington Post the formation of a new grassroots campaign committed to passing Pelosi’s ambitious “Hundred Hours” agenda.

From AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee

Today, Americans will make a choice. We will choose not to stay the course — but instead to change the course of our country. With our votes, we will demand a new direction in Iraq. With our votes, we will demand and end to the misplaced priorities that have meant tax cuts for the super wealthy paid for on the backs of middle America.

Today, we stand up for national security, job security, retirement security, and health care security. Today, we take back all of America for working families.

This election is personal for AFSCME members. It is not just about national issues. The results can directly affect our contracts. For years, the right wing has worked to weaken us at the bargaining table. If we elect a progressive majority in Washington and in state capitols across the country, we will have allies instead of adversaries in our effort for strong contracts with affordable health insurance, fair pay and real job security.

That’s why all across America, hundreds of thousands of AFSCME members have worked hard to make this change happen. From phone banking in Philadelphia to canvassing in Des Moines to door knocking in Spokane. In fact, y labor’s efforts, including those of Joel Gutzki, a member of AFSCME Local 1390 in Lansing MI, were recently profiled in an Associated Press story.

Today, we will show our brothers and sisters that their work mattered. Every workplace leaflet handed out, every phone call made, every door knocked on will mean fairer contracts, a bigger voice, and a stronger America.

Today, we will change America for the better. We have the power.