The Life of the Party

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Planners of Milwaukee's Laborfest were thrilled when AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee agreed to address the expected crowds at their annual Labor Day bash. But their excitement went right through the roof when they learned that McEntee had invited Pres. Bill Clinton to join him--and that Clinton had accepted.

Crowds of union members and their families were lined up outside the locked gates of Mayer Park long before the Labor Day parade marchers reached the grounds, with some 18,000 joining in the festivities throughout the day.

McEntee had two jobs on a hot and sunny "last day of summer." His first was to give a rousing speech to the thousands of union members and their families gathered to celebrate "Labor's" Day.

"There's one thing union families in Milwaukee have never forgotten-something that a lot of the labor movement is only just now beginning to remember," said McEntee. "It's that what matters most isn't what organized labor achieved in the past, it's what we're organizing to gain in the future. It's that this generation of trade unionists doesn't want to read labor history, this generation wants to make it."

Fresh from the high energy of the Democratic Convention in Chicago, McEntee pumped the crowd up for the days of work facing them before election day. He listed issues--efforts to trash OSHA, gut Fair Labor Standards and legalize company unions--which Dole and Gingrich had supported, while President Clinton stood up for working families.

"While Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich fought tooth and nail against raising the minimum wage and for labor laws that would give one scab more rights than 13 million union families, it was Bill Clinton who said, 'Hell no!'"

McEntee then headed off to the afternoon's special event elsewhere on the grounds where he pointed out Clinton's accomplishments and introduced AFL-CIO Pres. John Sweeney to the thousands who had waited through the day's heat to hear the President of the United States.

"I want to say a special thanks to Jerry McEntee," Clinton told the crowd. "He supported me when nobody else but my mother thought I had a chance. He's got a big heart, and if you were in a foxhole, you'd want him in there with you fighting for the future of your family. And I'm glad he's in there with me."

Clinton outlined some of his plans as the crowds shouted and cheered. "I want this to be a country where every family has a chance to succeed at home and at work. I want to build a 21st century with the best education system in the world. I also want to make it possible for every single American who wants to do it to go to college--to get an education. I want to say, 'If you lose your job, you get a skills grant to help you get on with your life again.'

"Will you help us build the bridge for the 21st century?" he asked. "Will you walk across it with all your brothers and sisters?"

The crowd roared assent.

By Susan Ellen Holleran