Labor bus tour highlights plight of unemployed, weak jobs market

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Laid-off workers, students, a priest and creators of anti-offshoring Web sites are among the 51 people taking a bus tour through Rust Belt states this week to talk about job struggles, countering similar trips by the Bush Every state and Washington, D.C., will have a representative riding the red, white and blue flag-covered buses on the ''Show Us the Jobs'' tour organized by the AFL-CIO and Working America, an activist affiliate of the labor federation.
''I think we need to get the word out there that the economy is not as rosy as people are saying,'' said Kevin Gregory, 41, of Millinocket, Maine, who was laid off in January 2003 from the Great Northern Paper Mill after 17 years.
He and his family now depend regularly on food banks. ''I've had to swallow my pride and get help,'' said Gregory.
The trip is also about politics, with stops planned in Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia — battleground states that could determine who wins the White House in November.
administration to promote a growing economy.