Why Labor Day is sour for some Americans who want to work

Just because Labor Day began as a Canadian holiday, it doesn't mean we should be celebrating the use of foreign labor at the expense of American jobs.

I wasn't even planning to write about Labor Day because most people don't care about it - certainly not like Independence Day or even Memorial Day.

On this national holiday, when almost 10 percent of the work force is unemployed, teen joblessness this summer is 25 percent, traditional industries are failing and organized labor is on the skids, why bother?

The answer to that doesn't come from a government talking head, an economist from Harvard or the latest statistics report.

It comes from a Chicago man named Sylvester Connors.

He's what is known as a "skilled laborer." He is a drywaller and taper by trade.

Connors describes himself as "just a plain old black male," age 52, graduated from high school and went to the apprenticeship program.

"My uncles and cousin, they was paperers, carpenters, laborers and all," says Connors, who doesn't have the best grammar or political correctness. But what he has to say is more important than how he says it.

"My family was into the construction trades, so like a family tradition, I followed my dad. He was a carpenter," he said.

Connors called me because he wants to work. I think he is like most Americans, certainly those in their 40s or 50s with families. They don't want handouts and they don't want the government taking over their businesses.

They just want to work.

"I'm on the verge of losing my home. My kids look at me like I'm a bum," he says matter-of-factly, not trying to leverage a handout but desperately in need of returning to a 40-hour workweek.

"I've been in the union since 1975. I keep my dues paid up but I can't get no employment. I want to get my sons into the apprenticeship program but why would I want them to? They look at me like I'm crazy," he said.

They tell him, "Dad, why would I want to get in this? You're not even workin.'"

There isn't a shortage of work, according to Connors.

"I know the economy is bad right now and it's hard to get a job. But there is a lot of work going on downtown and all over the city of Chicago and people are comin' in from outside in the suburbs; the illegal Hispanics are working."

Therein is the rub. Or at least one of them.

"We have a problem with the union about hiring practices," says Connors who claims to be speaking on behalf of 25 painters, tapers and drywallers.

"We go to union meetings and what they preach to us is they tell us we need to be minority contractors and stuff like that. But how can you be a contractor if you can't even get a job to take care of your family and pay your bills let alone try to get a loan to get a contract?" he said.

Good point. And besides, if Chicago history is an indicator, some minority contracts stand a chance of going to big bucks white businessmen who know how to rig the bidding.

Connors believes he has a right to work and shouldn't have to fight to work.

"I'm just one that had the nerve to pick up the phone and call even though I don't know if this is gonna work. The union is collecting all this money from these guys," who are not even "planning to stay here to try to retire. They work 5 or 10 years and they make a good buck and they send it back home and they go back home and live."

So that means all the money they pay to the union to the pension fund will just sit there unclaimed, he said. Or at least, it can't be claimed legally.

Connors says he feels as though it is a "losing battle."

When he raises the issue of illegal immigrants getting jobs using fake documentation, he faces charges that he is a racist. Further, when he asks why he and the laborers with experience aren't getting work, he is told "companies don't want guys who are over 50."

"I mean, come on. If I knew this back 25 years ago, when I was in my 20s, that they was going to tell me I couldn't get a job 'cause I turned 50 years old, I wouldn't have ever got into the drywall business. I've got two strikes on me in the door. I'm black and I'm over 50," he said.

It shouldn't be this way. On Labor Day - or any other day.

• Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by e-mail at chuckgoudie@gmail.com and followed at twitter.com/ChuckGoudie.