Aug. 31--LIMA -- The theme song for this year's Labor Day parade won't be "Happy Days Are Here Again." But, if local union leaders have anything to say about it, it might be "A Change is Gonna Come."

The Lima News recently hosted a roundtable discussion with 11 area labor leaders representing the building trades, skilled labor and the local manufacturing base. And if one idea could sum up their thoughts in the two-hour conversation, it's that something has to change.

With unemployment nearing 10 percent, a federal deficit now measured in the trillions and prices on everything from gas to groceries skyrocketing, most working-class Americans are facing tough times. For many of the labor leaders, it's a case of deja vu.

"You just have to think back to the 1980s when, at one point in time, 60 percent of us, whether you were in a union or not, couldn't find a construction project because money got really tight," said Bill Allen, president of the Allied Labor Council. "You've got the perfect storm brewing again and I don't know, with what's happened over the last eight years, if whoever becomes president can turn it around."

"I would say the years '81 and '82, they were the worst I've seen since I started," added Rick Johnson, business manager for the Laborers' Union. "We are headed back into that phase right now."

Just as it was in the '80s, today's economic hardships stem from a combination of high energy prices and increased unemployment. But the current troubles also include a record federal debt, a weak dollar and huge trade deficits.

"All we hear from business leaders is we need to compete. It used to be China. ... Now it's Vietnam or Mexico. We have to short our own to compete. It's just this endless cycle, this race to the bottom, and it serves no one but the businesses that profit from it," said Mike Kinsley, business manager for Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 776.

Federal trade programs -- the North American Free Trade Agreement , the Central America Free Trade Agreement and others -- have done nothing but pump up corporate profits to the detriment of the working class, Kinsley said. The past decade saw record profits for many corporations, while loyal workers waited in unemployment lines.

"This is the first time that we've had an economic expansion that the middle class hasn't benefited from it," Kinsley said. "All we hear is push, push, push so that you can compete with China or whoever's on top at the time, but what's this doing to the standard of living in this country?"

Far from free

Labor leaders long have warned about the dangers of sending jobs and whole industries overseas.