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It was never Christmas, Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July or even Halloween.

Be that as it may, the nation’s working men and women once got their due on the first Monday in September with well-attended parades and testimonials celebrating the strength of the middle class.

Today, labor leaders acknowledge, Labor Day is little more than the opposite bookend to Memorial Day, bracketing a summer season that, by the calendar, technically begins and ends about three weeks later.

For Mark Staffne, the annual Labor Day parade through downtown St. Louis has been a ritual for the better part of 47 years.

"I can’t say it was huge," said the business representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1439 in St. Louis. "But people used to watch it. Many people. Now, it’s dwindled down to union members sitting on the sidelines, watching it go by."

The meaning of Memorial Day has the benefit of patriotic reminders from educators and veterans.

Not so Labor Day which, in the estimation of University of Missouri-St. Louis business school lecturer Joy Dakich, "is lost on a population that has no connections to unions anymore."

The reasons start with the shift of the work force from union-held manufacturing jobs to nonunion jobs in the service sector.

In its latest monthly unemployment report, issued Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 2 million manufacturing jobs have been lost just since the start of the current recession.

Close behind has been the depletion of the ranks by outsourcing, automation and exporting labor to offshore factories and offices.

Finally, blue collar workers themselves weakened the movement with good intentions.

"You had guys who worked in the factories for 30 years saying to their high school kids, ‘I don’t want you to go to the factory every day. I want you to go to college.’ They wanted something better for their kids. And something better never translated into a union job," said Paul Cole, executive director of the American Labor Studies Center in Troy, N.Y.

Dakich, active in the labor movement when she worked with the airline industry, has taught college-level courses on labor relations for 27 years.

She says labor’s failure to burnish its own image is pushing the movement toward irrelevance.

Students in Dakich’s classes are often surprised when she identifies Albert Pujols, Brad Pitt and Madonna as union members.

The idea that entertainment and sports icons are union people, Dakich says, runs counter to negative public perceptions about labor unrest, unruly picket lines, work slowdowns and notorious tales about James Hoffa, the late International Teamster’s Union president.

"If the unions are going to utilize Labor Day effectively, then they need to talk about people the average citizen recognizes and then bring it down to scale," said Dakich.

"They should show people like Albert Pujols and then show a union guy who has been (driving a truck) for 20 years and making $60,000 a year and a (nonunion) driver who isn’t making that kind of money."

Hugh McVey, president of the Missouri AFL-CIO, takes exception with Dakich and others who contend that time, economics and perception have diluted the importance of organized labor, and along with it, Labor Day.

"Perhaps you should talk to someone about trying to build in St. Louis without (organized labor)," McVey said. "They’ll tell you we’re relevant."

Still, McVey acknowledges labor has fallen short in promoting its attributes, particularly to young people.

"I didn’t even do a good enough job of telling my own kids what labor did for them," he admitted.

Cole says the younger generation needs to be told and the older generation reminded that without labor, the middle class as we know it would not exist.

A discussion that starts at home, Staffne maintains, should continue in history and current events classes and in counseling offices that guide high school students toward appropriate careers.

"Somehow, we have to make people know it’s not a disgrace to say, ‘Hey, I’m a blue collar worker,’" he said.

Dakich cautions that — whether in school or educating the general public about the reason for a federal holiday on the first Monday in September — labor needs to resist the temptation to live in the past.

"They shouldn’t use Labor Day to talk about old-time history, Mother Jones and people no one knows anything about today," Dakich said.

"They should talk about the true benefits of being represented (by organized labor), issues of due process and actual job protection" in dire economic times.

Or, perhaps, labor should start letting young people such as Terral Henderson do the talking.

Along with most of his classmates at the Construction Careers Center, a St. Louis charter school for young people interested in the trades, Henderson thought of Labor Day — if he thought of it at all — as the first three-day weekend of the academic year.

That changed after Henderson earned a diploma in 2007 that led to an apprenticeship with Local 1396 of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Ironworkers.

Ask Henderson, 20, what he’s doing now and the quick response is accompanied by a bright smile.

He’s helping to rebuild Highway 40.

Last year, at the behest of his new co-workers, Henderson attended his first St. Louis Labor Day parade as a spectator.

In 2009, he won’t be on the sidewalk.

Henderson may not have known what Labor Day was about before. But as he prepares to march through downtown Monday morning, he understands what it means now.

"It represents what I do," he said. "I labor every day."

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Forget about resting easy.

Target-date funds, billed as confidence-building vehicles that gradually shift your holdings into more conservative fixed-rate instruments as their date nears, have caused some sleepless nights.

Investors stashed money in these one-stop retirement plans so they didn’t have to worry about making their own allocation decisions. But it has become clear they need to better understand the basic concept of target-date funds and carefully scrutinize any fund under consideration.

The 2010 target-date funds designed for people who turn 65 years old next year lost an average of 25 percent of their value in 2008. Because many target-date funds are also the automatic default investment for enrollees in company 401(k) retirement accounts, the devastation was compounded.
As funds were drawing close to that target date, encouraged by a vibrant stock market, they kept a lot of stock in their portfolios. They were also competing for the best performance in order to attract new assets. But then the bull turned into a bear, and they paid a high price.

The average 2010 target-date fund had a 45 percent stock allocation at year-end 2008, according to Target Date Analytics LLC in Marina del Rey, Calif.

"The fund companies had expanded their investment strategy past the target date, using the rationale that people live 15 or 20 years past retirement, so they should keep a strong equity position," said Joseph Nagengast, principal with Target Date Analytics. "Target-date fund managers weren’t managing to the year 2010, as some investors assumed, but to some point well beyond it."

Investors must determine whether a target fund they’re considering is a "to" fund that manages the money to the target date or a "through" fund that manages it past the target date and into retirement, he said.

"Ask the fund company when the fund will reach its most conservative position," advised Nagengast. "If it’s a 2030 fund and they tell you 2029, you know they’re managing to the target date, but if they say 10 years after that date, you’ll know they’re managing well into retirement."

That means more responsibility than most target-date investors expected.

"You as the investor must define the target date and whether it represents when you plan to retire or some date beyond that," said Jack VanDerhei, research director for the Employee Benefits Research Institute in Washington. "A lot of people believe that by the target date they should be down to zero equities, which indicates their lack of understanding."

Some fund companies that were low on equities last year are now trumpeting their lack of negative performance, VanDerhei noted, while others are saying a certain percentage of equities must be in your portfolio to fight inflation if you have 20 years or more left in your retirement flexcheck cash advance.

"As the investor, you must know which strategy makes you feel most comfortable," he said, noting that reading the prospectus of the fund remains crucial. "Many people say target funds dated 2010 or close to that have too much equity in them, but this ignores the fact that the investor can look for a fund that holds a smaller percentage of equities."

Surveys have shown that some investors incorrectly believed they were getting a guaranteed payout when the target date was reached, another misconception. But despite all the fallout from poor performance and some murky comprehension, there can be a place for target-date funds in an individual’s planning if he or she clearly understands what the investment is all about.

"It still makes sense to have target-date funds and, like any other investment, there are good and bad ones," said Greg Carlson, fund analyst with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. "They provide one-stop shopping for investors who don’t want to build their own portfolios, plus broad diversification over most asset classes."

The three biggest competitors in target-date funds are Fidelity Investments, Vanguard Group and T. Rowe Price, though such funds are offered by a host of investment companies.

Carlson especially likes the Vanguard Target Retirement Funds because they’re mostly index funds with broad diversification and low fees. He also likes T. Rowe Price Retirement because it has some excellent funds in its portfolio and "is one of the few companies that does a lot of things really well." Two examples of 2010 target-date funds Carlson finds noteworthy are Vanguard Target Retirement 2010 and T. Rowe Price Retirement 2010.

Other experts have caveats about even those fund groups.

"I think Vanguard and T. Rowe Price do a good job in long-dated funds that have more than 20 years until the target date," said Nagengast. "But in my view, they do a poor job of managing risk in short-dated funds of 15 years or less because they’re making investment decisions based on a date well past the actual target date."

Whatever fund company and fund is chosen, individual investors still bear the ultimate responsibility for the selection made. The buck stops with them.

"All the big fund companies are pretty competitive on fees, so I don’t think that will be the greatest factor making an investor choose one company over another," concluded VanDerhei. "It really comes down to asset allocation and which fund company you feel most comfortable with."

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Ameren Corp. will offer buyouts to 350 employees and will lay off an unspecified number of others as it responds to a sagging economy that has reduced electricity demand.

Buyouts are being offered to full-time managers and non-union employees who will turn 58 years old by Dec. 31. Senior executive officers and about 60 other employees are excluded from the program because of operational needs, the St. Louis-based company said Friday in a statement.

There will be additional job cuts depending on participation in the buyout program and for "other business reasons," the company said separately in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The job losses announced Friday by Ameren follow the elimination of 140 positions from the company’s merchant generation unit earlier this summer.

"We must build a more streamlined organization that can compete effectively in an environment where costs are rising, demand for energy has softened and prices for our merchant generation power have declined," Chief Executive Thomas R bad credit auto loans. Voss said in the statement.

The 350 positions being eliminated through buyouts would represent about 3.5 percent of Ameren’s 9,870-person work force.

Eligible employees were being notified this week and have until Oct. 22 to decide whether to accept buyout offers. Those who do are expected to leave by Nov. 1.

Employees who accept buyouts will receive Ameren’s usual severance package for managers — two weeks of pay for each year of service with a minimum of 13 weeks’ pay and a maximum of 52 weeks.

Most of the positions that are left vacant following the buyouts won’t be filled, the company said.

Ameren expects the buyout program to reduce earnings by as much as $30 million if all eligible employees accept the offers, the company said in the SEC filing.

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Google, fighting to gain ground on China’s Baidu’s dominant search lead in the country, confirmed the departure of its China president on Friday and said its regional sales head would take over Lee Kai-Fu’s business and operational responsibilities.

Lee, who joined the firm from Microsoft in 2005, was in charge of setting up Google’s China operations. He soon became a key figure in the search industry, giving numerous press interviews, becoming the face of Google China.

Google China’s engineering responsibilities will fall to Yeo Boon-Lock, the firm said in a statement. John Liu will take over Lee’s business and operational responsibilities.

Lee’s departure set for the middle of September, comes at a time when Google is inching forward in its battle with Baidu in the world’s largest Internet market by users, while fighting Beijing regulators who want Google to censor its searches.

According to Analysys International, Baidu held 61.6 percent of China’s search market in the second quarter while Google held 29 percent.

Some analysts expect Google to continue chipping away at Baidu’s lead, as the Mountain View, California firm launches new initiatives, such as free music downloads, to entice the Chinese surfer.

“Kai-Fu has made an enormous contribution to Google over the last four years, helping dramatically to improve the quality and range of services that we offer in China,” said Alan Eustace, Google’s senior vice president for engineering, in a statement business cards.

Under Lee’s stewardship, Google China had a difficult relationship with Beijing censors. In June, a Chinese official accused Google of spreading obscene content over the Internet. The comments came a day after Google.com, Gmail and other Google online services became inaccessible to many users in China.

Beijing’s criticism of Google came as the government stepped up a campaign against Internet pornography, requiring all PC makers pre-install special “Green Dam” software to filter out objectionable material such as online pornography.

China has since backed down on that plan though it will still be rolled out in schools and Internet cafes.

Lee’s entry to Google was mired by a lawsuit from Microsoft, who sued Google and Lee, claiming that Lee was violating his non-compete agreement by working for Google within one year of leaving Microsoft.

The lawsuit was settled out of court before the case could go to trial.

(Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Valerie Lee)

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Cisco Systems Inc and EMC Corp are in talks to create a new joint venture to provide technology services, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people briefed on the plan.

The paper said the new venture, code-named Alpine, would be aimed at data centers — the giant computing rooms that power the Internet and corporate networks.

The joint venture plans to target large businesses and emphasize installing products from Cisco and EMC, the newspaper said, adding that it was unclear when the new venture could be announced.

Cisco and EMC would both have board representation on a new company, the people told the paper.

“EMC and Cisco have a long-standing strategic alliance and over the years we continue to broaden and strengthen the alliance” a spokesman for EMC was quoted as telling the paper. A spokesman for Cisco told the paper the company did not comment on rumor or speculation.

Cisco and EMC could not be immediately reached for a comment by Reuters.

(Reporting by Chakradhar Adusumilli in Bangalore; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

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Freedom Communications Inc., the owner of more than 30 daily newspapers including the Orange County Register in California and the Telegraph in Alton, sought bankruptcy protection after print ad revenue declined.

Freedom, which also owns eight television stations, has assets of as much as $1 billion and debt of more than $1 billion, it said today in Chapter 11 papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The company, based in Irvine, Calif., said it filed after a majority of its lenders agreed to support a plan to restructure its debt.

Industrywide, ad revenue fell 29 percent to $6.82 billion in the second quarter from $9.6 billion a year earlier, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Ad sales dropped 28 percent in the first quarter, the Arlington, Va., trade group said.

The drought has forced publishers to cut jobs, wages and sections, and to boost prices. Ad sales make up more than half of revenue for publishers including New York Times Co. Freedom’s revenue totaled $734 million last year, according to Moody’s Investors Service Inc.

Managers at the Telegraph in Alton referred media enquires to a Freedom spokesman.

Operations will "all continue normally," spokesman Bob Emmers said. Readers and viewers "shouldn’t see anything different," he said, adding that job cuts and benefit reductions are not part of the bankruptcy plan.

Jeremiah McWilliams of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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Boeing Co. has tapped the top executive of its St. Louis-based Integrated Defense Systems subsidiary as head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Jim Albaugh, 59, will replace Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Scott Carson, 63, who announced Monday that he will retire. The appointment is effective today.

"Jim is a seasoned and effective aerospace executive with substantial experience leading and integrating technically complex businesses and programs from initial development through full production and delivery," Boeing President and CEO Jim McNerney said Monday in a statement.

Albaugh has led Boeing’s defense, space and associated businesses since 2002. Under his leadership, the company said, the Integrated Defense Systems’ revenues have grown from $25 billion to a projected $34 billion in 2009.

He is a native of Washington state and joined the company in 1975 as a project engineer. Albaugh served as president of Boeing Space and Communications, which merged in 2002 with the company’s Military Aircraft and Missiles Systems to form IDS.

Albaugh will be succeeded today by Dennis Muilenburg, 45, who was president of Boeing IDS’ $8 billion Global Services and Support business. He also was vice president and general manager of the Boeing Combat Systems division and was program manager for Future Combat Systems, an Army modernization effort.

In June, the Pentagon ordered a "transition" from the $160 billion Future Combat Systems program to a series of acquisition programs that would ultimately extend some high-tech battlefield equipment to all combat brigades.

The Army will strip light-armored ground vehicles from the program.

Despite the change in course, McNerney said Monday that the Future Combat Systems was "a flawlessly delivered program."

In a conference call Monday, McNerney said Muilenburg had earned his new job, calling him "one of the most talented people we have in the company payday loan online." Boeing officials said Muilenburg would continue to be based in St. Louis and was expected to spend significant time in Washington as well.

A native of Iowa, Muilenburg began his career at Boeing in June 1985.

Boeing’s IDS is the second-largest employer in the St. Louis region with about 16,000 workers.

McNerney said that it was Carson’s decision to retire at the end of this year and that "it is never a perfect time in today’s world to make a management change." He said Albaugh and Carson would work together closely to ensure a smooth transition.

Albaugh faces a tough task as the new head of the commercial aircraft division. The operation has struggled with sharply lower orders amid the global economic downturn, which has hurt demand for air travel and cargo services. It also has grappled with problems arising from its new 787 Dreamliner, a next-generation passenger jet that’s been delayed five times.

Last week, Boeing announced that the Dreamliner should be ready for its first flight by the end of this year.

The jet’s problems had already spurred Boeing to move defense executives to the commercial aircraft business.

"There’s a shift here," said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. "You’ve got an increasingly heavy presence of IDS engineers to help out with the 787. (The Albaugh appointment) follows that pattern."

In October 2007, a week after the first 787 delay, Boeing named Pat Shanahan, former vice president of the missile-defense unit, to lead the Dreamliner program. In December 2008, Scott Fancher, a missile-defense executive, joined the 787 program.

Bloomberg News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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When General Motors executives stopped in St. Louis last fall to meet with auto dealers, the economy was entering a free fall.

"We were right in the middle of the meltdown when we were out doing this. We just didn’t know it," said Mark LaNeve, GM vice president for sales. "I mean we thought it was a bad couple of weeks. And as it turned out, the vehicle market was collapsing, the stock market was collapsing, the banking sector (too)."

Last week, LaNeve, CEO Fritz Henderson and other GM executives met with Midwestern auto dealers in downtown St. Louis for the first time since emerging from bankruptcy last month. The automaker is going forward with fewer brands, fewer vehicle "nameplates" and, ultimately, fewer dealerships.

The launch of the nine-city dealer tour comes at a pivotal time for the American automaker. The deep recession has hurt auto sales, and consumers have been lukewarm to some of its vehicle brands.

Henderson called last week’s meeting a good opportunity to reconnect with GM dealers and get people "charged up about winning in the marketplace." To do so, the new, smaller GM has to win back the hearts and minds of U.S. consumers, he added.

"For those people who own our vehicles today, and are happy with them, we want to make sure we make them even happier," Henderson said after the meeting. "And for those that don’t want to consider us, we want to compete and get back on their consideration list."

Several area dealers were upbeat about what they heard and the prospects for the future. The fact that Henderson attended this year’s meeting was further evidence that "they mean business; that they’re serious," said attendee Greg Flotte, general manager of Don Brown Chevrolet in St. Louis.

Flotte said there already had been some signs that it wasn’t business as usual at the new GM. When the federal government was slow to reimburse dealers on Cash for Clunkers rebates, GM came up within 48 hours with a loan program to help dealers who had not been paid.

"That would not have happened under the old General Motors," Flotte said. "To have that happen that quickly and take action that was effective was something that I was very, very impressed with."

General Motors plans to put more marketing muscle behind fewer vehicle models within its core brands — Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC, LaNeve said. "We’re going to very aggressively get our story told. That’ll kind of start in September."

Dealers said they welcomed that focused approach to advertising.

LaNeve said reducing the number of dealerships proved "an enormously emotional, painful process." The company plans to shed about 1,200 dealers nationwide under its reorganization, but GM officials would not disclose how many are in the St. Louis region or elsewhere.

It also plans to sell off Hummer, Saturn and Saab, and discontinue the Pontiac brand.

"So we’ll have a 24, 25 percent reduction in the overall number of dealers, which we did to strengthen the dealers," he said. "We’ve got to have dealers that can compete."

The weakened economy has hurt demand for GM’s full-size GMC Savana and Chevrolet Express vans built at the company’s Wentzville plant, where GM eliminated one of two production shifts. But Henderson said that the van remained an important product and that Wentzville was "the only place where we build that van."

One analyst said GM’s campaign for the hearts and minds of consumers, dealers and auto enthusiasts was not unlike a political campaign.

"A lot of it, at the end of the day, is to get votes," said Erich Merkle, president of Autoconomy in Grand Rapids, Mich. "GM wants to be elected. They want to be perceived as a cutting-edge, high-quality company."

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