Do you remember when Wal-Mart first started and they pledged to be a store that would support American goods? I remember seeing, reading and hearing how Wal-Mart was as patriotic as Ford and Uncle Sam. Yet our current Wal-Mart Stores shy away from American-made products and detest union-made products.

Oddly enough, union-made products are rooted in American history and the American way. Yet Wal-Mart, the once “American products store” won’t go near a union-made product.

You may think I am exaggerating, but I am not.

I will be keeping the company in the following example anonymous, in order to not damage their working relationship with Wal-Mart or other companies. There is a company based in St. Louis that makes coats-winter and other. Wal-Mart has been ordering from this company for several seasons. Wal-Mart knows that this is a union company.

This company inserted a union label in a product because they had had requests for these labels by some of their buyers. Feeling that no harm or offense would be felt by this action, they inserted this label in the products being sent to Wal-Mart.

Understand that the product is the same as if the label was not in the product. Also, understand that this product is made in the United States and being shipped to the once proclaimed “American products store”.

As you may have guessed, Wal-Mart received the coats and reviewed the product. Apparently noticing the union label, the coats were returned. The coats were not returned due to damage or poor craftsmanship, but because a label inside the coat said that they were made by American union labor. Once the products were returned to the coat factory, they simply marked out the union label and sent the exact same products to Wal-Mart. They were accepted.

The exact same product, with the union label still attached. Wal-Mart did order and accept these American-made products, and for that I will give them credit. But how often do you see “Made in America” on a product from Wal-Mart?

In my opinion you cannot be more anti-American than Wal-Mart was in this case. I understand that in our current world economy and buying power of Americans that companies must produce products at a cheaper cost in order for the consumer to purchase them. I also understand that retail outlets must keep a marketable image and products on the shelves that customers will buy. But this example shows that neither of these two reasons for selling offshore products were the reason for the return and dissatisfaction of the coats.

What happened to Buy American, Be American? Is this a sentiment that I made up in my head?

There are currently 16 million union workers in America that make or assemble products for purchasing here and abroad. These 16 million workers are hard-working, loyal Americans.

These workers are the people you see on the Fourth of July with flags on their homes and vehicles. In my opinion, if there is a group of Americans, not including the military, that represent America, it is the union workers.

Union workers produce things ranging from clothes to toys to cars to buildings. Union workers are the police officers that make us comfortable at night and the teachers who make our futures brighter. Union workers are the ones who ensure that our cars are safe when we drive like idiots on the highway and the ones who keep trash off our streets no matter how often we throw it there.

Labor Day is a day to celebrate these and millions of other hard-working Americans who, day in and day out, go to work and produce respectable products with better quality than anywhere else in the world. Labor day is a day to celebrate the products America produces and is a day to remember. When we buy an American product, we buy a piece of America and secure a piece of our American future.

So on this Labor Day, I ask you to thank those hard-working Americans, union or nonunion, and invite them to buy a piece of America. I invite you to secure the future of America by going to your local retail outlet and asking them what products they have that are made with American Pride.

Happy Labor Day.

Josh Campbell is a senior studying political science and communications.