Yesterday, President Barack Obama told a crowd of around 13,000 in Detroit that the country will rise and fall together:
"Anyone who doesn’t believe it should come here to Detroit," said Obama. "It’s like the commercial says: This is a city that’s been to heck and back. And while there are still a lot of challenges here, I see a city that’s coming back."
Obama said the nation "cannot have a strong growing economy without a strong growing middle class and without a strong labor movement."
At the event, Obama was previewing his jobs speech, which will be given in front of a joint session of Congress this Thursday (September 8).
"I don't want to give everything away right here, because I want ya'll to tune in on Thursday," Obama said. "But I'll give you just a little bit. We’ve got roads and bridges across this country that need rebuilding. We’ve got private companies with the equipment and the manpower to do the building. We’ve got more than 1 million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now. There is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it. Labor is on board. Business is on board. We just need Congress to get on board. Let’s put America back to work."
Here's President Obama's Labor Day Speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KflsCo4iaL4
During the speech, Obama recounted a conversation he had with Michigan Senator Carl Levin:
You know, I was on the plane flying over here, and Carl Levin was with me, and he showed me a speech that Harry Truman had given on Labor Day 63 years ago, right here in Detroit -- 63 years ago. And just to show that things haven't changed much, he talked about how Americans had voted in some folks into Congress who weren’t very friendly to labor. And he pointed out that some working folks and even some union members voted these folks in. And now they were learning their lesson. And he pointed out that -- and I'm quoting here -- 'the gains of labor were not accomplished at the expense of the rest of the nation. Labor’s gains contributed to the nation’s general prosperity.'"
