Laboring to find more work for many

If you’re of working age and ability, will you be heading back to work tomorrow? Too many of us will not. And this is perhaps the most significant challenge facing our nation on this the 129th U.S. observance of Labor Day.

Sadly, too many of our elected leaders don’t seem to understand that. Or they do, but they allow us all to be sidetracked by silly discussions about whether President Obama should talk about jobs on a Wednesday or a Thursday.

He and all our elected officials, company leaders and chieftains of commerce ought to be focused like laser beams on what can be done most effectively to get more of us laboring as soon as possible. Note to politicians everywhere: It’s the jobs, stupids.

We need public officials doing all they can to create incentives to the creation of more jobs. We need private industry titans taking calculated risks to create jobs when they can. We need bankers to loosen up and start loaning more to new and established businesses.

All of that will get us moving, growing and spending again. Those of us blessed on this day to have a holiday from work need this, too. Too many public and private workers have endured years of pay cuts, freezes and benefits cuts.

Former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich recently noted in the Chicago Tribune that Commerce Department data show private-sector wage gains in the past decade are smaller than they were during the Great Depression’s decade.

This is not good news for any of us. Every one of us has a stake in finding solutions.

Public workers spent weeks protesting and fighting for their bargaining power in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere this past year in what became one of the year’s more divisive disputes.

In this space, we repeatedly have taken to task those public employees who have salaries, benefits and pension expectations that go far beyond the average in our communities and we stand by that view. We still have a public pension system we can’t afford and that Illinois officials must fix.

Yet there also have been many public workers, many fine suburban teachers among them, who have recognized the debilitating economic conditions. They have taken hits, scaling back their pay and compensation expectations. Private industry workers have done the same, often without any say or choice in the matter. And again far too many of us have lost the chance to labor.

This Labor Day, let us all do more than soak up sun, picnics and barbecues as we say so long to summer. Let us remember that we all have shouldered the tough times. Let us remember that those of us who have the opportunity toil harder than ever, often for less pay. Those who have the ability to put more of us back to work, must do so if we are to regain our footing in the world economy. Always in our history, we rise to the challenge. Once again, we must.