For Irish-Americans, labor threats carry poignancy

For Irish-Americans, labor threats carry poignancy
By The Associated Press
March 16, 2011

NEW YORK—In a year when the questions of union power and the responsibility of governments to their employees have taken center stage, St. Patrick's Day is taking on dual meaning for many Irish-Americans, with their rich ties to the labor movement.

The struggles their famine-worn ancestors faced as new arrivals -- the slurs from their neighbors, the "Irish need not apply" signs -- still echo through the generations, as does the avid union support that helped lift them to positions of power, influence and ultimately acceptance.

"Union jobs, civil service jobs have always been the ladder out of poverty for working people in this country," said Patrick J. Lynch, leader of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the union that represents New York police. "The faces may have changed. The countries they're coming from may have changed. But the ladder is the same."

In Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere, public workers face threats to collective bargaining rights, and Irish-American legislators backing the proposals are being accused of betraying their heritage. In the nation's largest city, the fond subject of songs like "When New York was Irish," a tight budget has led to a battle over municipal pensions.

More:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2011/03/16/for_irish_americans_labor_threats_carry_poignancy/

Anyone with Irish-American heritage who doesn't support unions may as well be British to me.

Not that I have anything against the Brits. (aside the fact they tried to breed me and mine out of existence )

cheers.

Never forget.

replace poignancy with pregnancy and imagine the reaction I had upon reading your OP title.

:)

and rightly so.