The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today publishes a Labor Day-oriented editorial and commentaries on the economy and jobs, including a contribution from John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers. Excerpt from Engler’s column:

Campaign season will be full of slogans, position papers and one-shot proposals about reviving manufacturing, but we need more than political tactics. Instead, let’s seriously address what it actually takes to create jobs in the global economy. The key word here is “competitiveness.”

When the United States recovered from the last deep recession of the early 1980s, it did so without competition from a unified Europe, a manufacturing giant in China, or rising industrial powers in Brazil and India.

These competitors think strategically about manufacturing. So must we.

For years, Washington has tried to encourage industry with specific pieces of legislation, government initiatives and small fixes. These are tactics. A manufacturing strategy will take a comprehensive view of what’s needed for U.S. manufacturing to succeed in the face of global competition.

The piece builds on the NAM’s report released in June, the “Manufacturing Strategy for Jobs and a Competitive America,” available at www.nam.org/manufacturingstrategy.

Other contributors to the AJC’s feature are Michael Thurmond, Georgia’s labor commissioner, and Paul Garcia and Donna Hyland, respectively the chairs of the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s technology and bioscience leadership councils.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, “Making Patriotic Choices To Save The Economy“:

It’s time for all Americans to remember that patriotism is about more than fighting abroad. It’s also about fighting for ourselves, our neighbors and our communities here in the United States. It’s time for economic patriotism.

Trumka came out with his “economic patriotism” rhetoric in time for Labor Day and the fall elections. Judging by his column, it’s just another, more invidious slogan to accompany the rest of the usual slogans.

Samuel Johnson had smart observations on the topic in “The Patriot,” his 1774 essay directed to the electors of England.

A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent, and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of violated rights, and encroaching usurpation.

This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick happiness, if not to destroy it. He is no lover of his country, that unnecessarily disturbs its peace. Few errours and few faults of government, can justify an appeal to the rabble; who ought not to judge of what they cannot understand, and whose opinions are not propagated by reason, but caught by contagion.

Just saying …

President Obama appears with Trumka next Monday at the annual Laborfest in Milwaukee. Will the President, too, embrace this rhetoric of “economic patriotism?”

Labor Day approaches this year more with a feeling of trepidation than relief for the American worker.  Despite an economic recovery that began in the second half of 2009, the unemployment is higher now that it was a year ago and private sector job growth has slowed in recent months as consumer and business confidence has slipped.

The factors behind the current state of the labor market and the recovery are the topics of the thirteenth annual 2010 NAM Labor Day Report, which in addition focuses on possible legislation and regulations that could depress the outlook for workers and companies by making it more difficult for our economy to compete in the global marketplace.

One of the noteworthy findings of the report is that uncertainty with respect to both the underlying strength of the economic recovery as well as possible policy changes from Washington D.C is causing manufacturers to curtail employment and capital spending plans.

For comments from NAM President John Engler, see the NAM’s news release, “NAM Report Examines Impact of Anti-Labor Policies on Working Men and Women.”

<!–37ee3bcad7d04f66978c57d16df8fa9e–>

As expected there was a flurry of union activity throughout the weekend, where many aspects of organized labor’s legislative priorities were discussed. As this blog noted, the President headed to an AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic in Cincinnati to stump for health care. However, while at the picnic, he gave a fleeting reference to big labor’s highest legislative priority: the job-killing Employee Free Choice Act.

Vice President Biden and Labor Secretary Solis offered support for the legislation at separate events in Pittsburgh and Chicago respectively.

Labor Day pronouncements aside, it’s been a rough year for the labor movement. According to a recent Gallup poll less than half of Americans approve of today’s labor movement. Labor has failed to convince enough Senators to pass their job-killing legislative brass-ring – card check legislation. A column in the Washington Post recently provided an overview of these setbacks. However, this particular piece came from the perspective that our current labor law system is unbalanced – a point that we have disputed and corrected numerous times on this blog.

It appears that organized labor is increasingly frustrated with this lack of action on card check, and they’re failing to speak with a unified voice, according to New York Times articles over the weekend. One piece quotes the likely new head of the AFL-CIO as saying that the President gets a “gets an A for effort, and an incomplete for results.” Despite spending $450 million dollars to elect the current administration, union bosses are facing a considerable amount of friction over the lack of progress. These concerns will likely be addressed when the President speaks at the AFL-CIO’s annual convention in Pittsburgh next week.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell continued to express his strong opposition to the legislation as a step in the wrong direction and merely an attempt for unions bolster their membership. He also reiterated that every Senate Republican is firm in their opposition to the EFCA.

The NAM highlighted the disconnect between the goals of union bosses and the needs of economy to recover in our annual Labor Day Report. Additionally, we’ve continued to call on members of the Senate to oppose the card check bill in any form with a campaign lead by our Labor Policy Institute in advance of the Labor Day weekend.

Bret Jacobson provides a good wrap up of other noteworthy pieces related to the EFCA at The Truth About EFCA blog.

The National Association of Manufacturers today released its 2009 Labor Day Report, “The Turning Tide – Prospects for a Manufacturing Recovery.”

From the news release:

The report looks at the economic decline in 2008-2009, the signs of stabilization emerging, and the outlook for employment, manufacturing and the economy. It projects an upturn in manufacturing production gradually over the next year with more significant growth in the 2011-2014 period. The report also projects that by 2014, the manufacturing sector will regain more than 40 percent of the jobs lost during the current downturn.

While there are indications that we may be in the early stages of recovery, the report indicates there is significant reason for caution. According to the report, a recovery would be negatively impacted if Congress and the Administration enact policies that discourage investment, hamper flexibility, or raise the costs of doing business in the United States. The report notes that prospects for good jobs, a strong manufacturing sector and a growing economy depend on U.S. global competitiveness.

The full report, written by NAM Chief Economist David Huether, is available here.

Bill McGurn, writing in The Wall Street Journal, reports that college isn’t for everybody. From “Labor Day and the American Dream“:

Mike Rowe wants to restore the luster to Labor Day. As host of the cable TV show “Dirty Jobs,” Mr. Rowe has done them all: from steel-mill worker and pig-slop processor to hot-tar roofer and sewer inspector. In the last year, he’s teamed up with industrial-supplies giant Grainger to set up a Web site (www.mikeroweWORKS.com) aimed at the millions of Americans who find their calling outside a university’s hallways.

In an entry headlined “WORK IS NOT THE ENEMY,” Mr. Rowe nails his thesis to his Web page: “We’ve convinced ourselves that ‘good jobs’ are the result of a four-year degree. That’s bunk. Not all knowledge comes from college. Skill is back in demand. Steel-toed boots are back in fashion.”

McGurn also notes the recent paper “America’s Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs,” by two economists, America University’s Robert Lerman and Georgetown’s Harry Holzer. NAM President John Engler was the keynote speaker at the Brookings Institution when the report was released in February.