Edgar

After teaching at Ohio State University for more than 17 years, Edgar, 71, is currently a labor educator at the University of Omaha, where he has been teaching for the past five-and-a-half years. Ironically, his own program provides workers with skills training but was almost cut last year due to budget deficits.

My Story
As someone who has been intimately involved with labor issues for decades as a labor educator and professor of labor studies, I am disgraced by the state of our economy.

There is a blatant disregard for job creation as the Bush administration sits back while millions of jobs are shipped overseas.

I have seen so many companies in Nebraska that have either left the state or downsized so much that there are few good jobs to be had. Last year in Lincoln, a manufacturing plant celebrated its 100th anniversary; this year, the plant is shuttered. Goodyear, a major employer in Lincoln, has been outsourcing jobs and has threatened to close down.

Ironically, my own program, which provides workers with skills training, was almost cut due to budget deficits.

My biggest concern is that there will no longer be a middle class, because working people continuously lose out in the class struggle. Working people in this country need more help in the form of job training and trade agreements, and it’s my goal to help provide the education that people need to make this country a better, more sustainable place for working Americans.