Happy Labor Day Americans. Celebrate the day; go to a cookout and be with family and friends. Many towns and cities are hosting parades. Americans have much to be proud of today:

GENEVA (AP) — American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.

They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which said the United States “leads the world in labor productivity.”

The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg at $55,641, Belgium at $55,235 and France at $54,609.

The productivity figure is found by dividing the country’s gross domestic product by the number of people employed. The U.N. report is based on 2006 figures for many countries, or the most recent available.

I wouldn’t say this is the fairest way to judge productivity, but it works for now. Some work is simply more valuable than other work.

As we celebrate and pat each other on the back, we face threats to our WORK.

Immigration-limits groups are in the midst of a Labor Day campaign to pressure Congress and presidential candidates to pledge to cut the flow of foreign labor in order to protect American workers.

The groups’ plea — being made in a new television-ad campaign and an online petition — occurs as think tanks on both sides of the immigration debate ponder the role of immigrants in the labor force, and arrive at different conclusions about how necessary foreign workers will be over the next half-century.

Do those who study a nations productivity consider the work being performed by immigrants, illegal and legal?

The group behind the ad, the Coalition for the Future American Worker, says there are 54 million Americans of working age without a job, and nearly 28 million foreign-born workers — both legal immigrants and illegal aliens — who hold jobs here. The group plans to deliver a petition to all of the 2008 presidential candidates tied to Labor Day asking them to crack down on employers who hire illegal aliens, but also to require businesses to look at American workers first, rather than legal foreign workers.

Our government is sharing a bed with the business lobby, who see PROFITS over American workers. We have laws in place already, which demand American workers be considered AND hired. It’s ILLEGAL to hire and employ ILLEGAL immigrants. Yet it happens every hour of every day. Jobs Americans once did; jobs Americans used to be proud to hold; jobs in every sector.

Evidence of this is seen in the medical community, nursing in particular:

The moves are taking place even as both sides debate what role immigrant workers can and should play in the future. A pro-immigration think tank, the Immigration Policy Center (IPC), says the U.S. will need immigrants to help take care of an aging population.

The IPC, part of the American Immigration Law Foundation, said in a report last week that the number of senior citizens in the U.S. will double from 35 million in 2000 to 71 million in 2030, and they will need care — 3.7 million long-term workers by 2014 and 6 million by 2050.
[...]
“The problem is relatively low wages and difficult work — just the type of jobs that immigrants (often, recent arrivals) are ready to take,” he wrote, though he noted that immigrants will require access to training programs that fit their needs.

The problem with this WORK, direct care giver, is the pay. The nursing home/Long Term Care industry needs to PAY the nurses and aides better wages. Nursing is hard work, but it’s not the work untrained, uneducated non-English speaking people should have. The wages are just part of the non-problem. There are more than enough nurses and aides to do this work. They have left the field, due to wages not being in line with the educational aspects of the job; the legal responsibility for lives; the work itself- physically hard and demanding; the hours and shifts. The so called nursing shortage is industry created. It’s VERY dangerous too and the ramifications of this are only just beginning to be felt.

There are many other industries that are quietly creating shortages as well. Take a look around. You see it everywhere.

In a local community MD practice, we have Doctors from other countries. A family practitioner from India; an OB/GYN from MEXICO; a dermatologist from Turkey…and so on. This medical practice is actually an HMO run operation- and the salaries and benefit packages are so bad this place cannot attract American doctors. This is a small town. Down in Boston it’s common to see foreign MD’s now too. Since WHEN is being a doctor not a job an American would want???

What will the next “industry” be? We’re going to see our truck drivers go Mexican pretty soon too. Fishermen are now more foreign than they are American.

Computer experts? Yes- it’s been happening for years now.

In a nearby local small city in NH, we have teachers from other countries now. Sad thing is this teacher is from, where else, MEXICO, and she doesn’t speak good English, yet she is teaching a HS course on Journalism. (Her job is temporary- someone mentioned that this is a TEST RUN for a new program to solve the shortage of GOOD teachers). This is a growing trend apparently:

It’s about the recent inspection of schools in Arizona that revealed the poor English skills of many of the state’s English teachers.

Now common sense would tell us that, if the kids’ English teachers can’t speak English well, that’s an impediment to the students learning English well.

Some of us might even conclude that it’s a sign that we’re importing too many people to successfully assimilate, especially if the teachers themselves aren’t fully assimilated.

Lawyers? Yes. When my Mother passed away I needed legal assistance. A lawyer from INDIA was assigned to my case. (I refused his help and demanded an American).

No sector is immune, and no college degree, well educated person is immune. The favorite claim that Americans will only do jobs, or hold careers, that require high skills and college degrees, is being torn apart.

Are we watching it happen? Or are we idly sitting back enjoying the Labor Days and good times and patting each other on our backs while profit driven entities and big government lobby groups are quietly working to take away every job, every career, we now have?

So enjoy your Labor Day. Consider what it means and consider the threat. Take it for it’s worth- your work, your job, career. Think about all you stand to lose. If not you, then your children. The debate over foreign labor needs is almost exclusively created by each industry, and we must counter this movement by staying educated on the doings and antics. By being aware of the lies and tactics being used. By pressuring our elected officials. By taking a stand on the issue.