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TROY, ILL. — 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 Day is little more than the opposite bookend to Memorial Day, bracketing the unofficial summer season.

"I think there is a direct correlation between the loss of manufacturing jobs and what Labor Day is all about," said Doug May, 54, a crane operator who has worked at the Granite City Steel Works for 36 years.
Indeed, the latest monthly unemployment report, issued Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, estimates that 2 million manufacturing jobs have been lost just since the start of the current recession.

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."

To Marlene Carey, an office worker at the Granite City Steel Works and a union member for 32 years, the reasons are obvious.

"Most of the blue collar jobs have been replaced by nonunion service sector jobs," Carey said Saturday at the annual United Steelworkers Labor Day weekend picnic, sponsored by Locals 1899 and 50, at Tri-Township Park in Troy.

"The history of how we got where we are, how the labor unions fought for fair wages and safe working environments is lost on the younger generation."

Finally, blue collar workers themselves have diluted the movement with good intentions. Lenny Chambers Jr., a Granite City Steel overhead crane operator attending Saturday’s picnic with his wife and two children, is a case in point.

Chambers, 40, comes from a long line of steelworkers that starts with his grandfather and runs through uncles and members of his wife’s family.

The money is good, the going tough and — having just come off a six-month layoff along with thousands of other Granite City workers — the job security is not what it once was.

And it’s not what Chambers wants for his children. "My kids, hopefully, will go to college," said Chambers, who is also studying for a college degree.

Chambers is far from an anomaly. "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 fast cash without a hassle.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 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. "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.

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 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.

This year, he won’t be on the sidewalk. As Henderson prepares to march through downtown Monday morning, he understands what Labor Day means.

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

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H&R Block Inc. said Friday that it lost $133.6 million in the first quarter, about the same as a year ago but slightly more than Wall Street expected, as acquisition expenses and other costs offset slightly higher revenue.

The nation’s largest tax preparer said its loss amounted to 40 cents per share, compared with a loss of $132 auto loans for people with bad credit.7 million, or 41 cents per share, a year ago.

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Banco Santander SA, the Brazilian unit of Spain’s Santander, filed on Thursday for an initial public offering in Brazil and the United States, in what could become one of the largest IPOs of the year.

In July, Santander said it would sell about 15 percent of its Brazilian unit through a new share issue, suggesting the IPO would be worth around $5.6 billion based on Banco Santander SA’s current market value of around $37 billion. That figure is derived from a tiny number of shares that are currently tradable.

A deal of that size would put it among the top IPOs of 2009 worldwide, and be the largest in the United States since the $19.6 billion offering by credit card operator Visa Inc in March 2008.

The IPO will also be a reflection of the relative strength of the Brazilian banking sector, which has weathered the turmoil in global markets and the credit crunch better than the financial sector in the United States and Europe.

Spain’s Santander controls virtually all of the Brazilian unit’s common and preferred shares.

Banco Santander SA’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday indicated it was seeking to raise up to $200 million, but that amount is almost certainly a placeholder until it files an updated prospectus that would include terms such as the number of shares to be sold and a price estimate range.

A spokeswoman for Santander’s Brazil unit said the bank would not comment on the transaction because of the quiet period ahead of the offering Business Card Holders.

Other major IPOs this year have included a $7.3 billion IPO in July by China State Construction Engineering Corp and a $4.3 billion offering by VisaNet, the credit card operator’s Brazilian affiliate.

Banco Santander filed to sell units, each representing 55 common shares and 50 preferred shares, according to the filing. The units will trade on the Sao Paulo stock exchange under the symbol SANB11.SA, the filing said.

The filing did not indicate an about timing for the offering.

Santander is Brazil’s third largest private-sector bank and the largest bank controlled by a major global financial group, with a 10.2 percent market share measured by assets as of March 31, 2009, according to its prospectus.

Santander’s Brazilian unit had assets of 288.9 billion reais ($154.82 billion) at the end of June.

For the six months ended June 30, 2009, the Brazilian unit’s operations accounted for over 20 percent of Santander Group’s net income and 53 percent of its net income in Latin America.

Santander has expanded its presence in Latin America’s largest economy through a slew of acquisitions in recent years, most recently by taking over ABN Amro’s Brazilian unit.

($1=1.866 reais)

(Reporting by Elzio Barreto and Phil Wahba; editing by Andre Grenon, Bernard Orr)

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Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co Ltd agreed on Thursday to buy U.S. drugmaker Sepracor Inc for $2.6 billion, giving the Japanese firm a big, local sales force in the world’s largest drugs market.

The deal is the latest in a string of overseas acquisitions by Japanese drugmakers keen to grow outside a mature home market and build product pipelines before key drug patents expire.

Dainippon, Japan’s No.7 drugmaker by revenues, will gain a sales force of 1,200 familiar with central nervous disorders as it looks to promote its experimental schizophrenia drug lurasidone, which has performed well in late-stage trials.

It will also gain Sepracor’s insomnia drug Lunesta, asthma drug Xopenex and an experimental epilepsy drug.

“We anticipate our business will shrink if we focus only on Japan, where medical prices are under pressure,” Dainippon Sumitomo President Masayo Tada told a news conference.

“Even if the U.S. carries out healthcare reform it’s not as if the market is going to halve. It will remain the world’s biggest drug market.”

The deal is the fourth-largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese drugmaker, and the second-biggest this year by any Japanese company.

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Dainippon’s shares climbed 1.2 percent in a weaker Tokyo market, with volume at six times the daily average this year. Some analysts said the purchase was the easiest route into the U.S. market, others said it looked pricey and risky.

Dainippon will pay $23 cash for each share, a premium of 27.6 percent on Tuesday’s close before media reports of the deal sent Sepracor’s stock surging to $22.8 on Wednesday. The acquisition cost is roughly equal to Dainippon’s annual sales.

“It’s a very expensive deal for a company of Dainippon Sumitomo’s size and also very risky, given the series of patent expirations on Sepracor’s mainstay drugs in the next few years,” said Credit Suisse analyst Fumiyoshi Sakai.

“Dainippon must be extremely confident in lurasidone, although I have some doubts,” he said, adding the deal would not have been possible without the backing of the Sumitomo Group, which includes Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Japan’s third-biggest bank. Dainippon is majority-owned by Sumitomo Chemical.

Aaron Gal, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein, said that based on projections for 2013, the deal values Sepracor at 3.5 times sales, compared with 3.1 times for the average of other specialty pharmaceutical and generic drug industry acquisitions.

It also values Sepracor at 19.4 times EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) compared with an average of 15.1 times for other deals, he said. 

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New signs of economic recovery emerged Tuesday only to be overshadowed by new worries that they won’t last.

The U.S. manufacturing sector grew in August for the first time in 19 months. A gauge of future house sales surged in July to its highest point in more than two years. And auto sales — boosted by the Cash for Clunkers program — appeared in August to have marked their first year-over-year monthly gain since October 2007.

Yet hopes for a sustained recovery remain clouded by a big concern: consumer spending, which fuels about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.

Analysts noted that the manufacturing and housing gains were boosted by temporary government stimulus steps, including Cash for Clunkers, which has since expired. The program helped lift sales at Ford, Toyota and Honda in August, though Chrysler Group and General Motors Co. withstood another month of falling sales.

At the same time, the National Association of Realtors said its seasonally adjusted index of sales contracts signed in July for previously occupied houses rose 3.2 percent to 97.6. It was the sixth straight increase and 12 percent above the same month last year.

The better-than-expected report from the Institute for Supply Management showed the highest number for its manufacturing index since June 2007. New customer orders jumped to a level not seen since late 2004.

Most manufacturers are simply restocking depleted stockpiles of goods — a process that will run its course within six months, said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Research. Beyond that, it’s hard to say how much the sector can expand as long as credit for consumers and businesses remains tight. If loans remain out of reach for many, shoppers and companies can’t spend and grow.

The ISM, a trade group of purchasing executives, said its manufacturing index rose to 52.9 in August, from 48.9 in July. That was its first reading above 50, which indicates expansion, since January 2008. The index has been trending lower since a peak reading this decade of 61.4, in May 2004.

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Walt Disney Co on Monday agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc for $4 billion in the year’s biggest media deal, banking on Marvel’s pantheon of superheroes to broaden its lineup of movie franchises that appeal to boys.

Disney adds Spider Man, Iron Man and Thor to its roster of classic characters like Mickey Mouse and Snow White, and will feature the super-heroes in movies before rolling out associated theme park rides, TV shows and merchandise.

But the deal comes at a tough time in the entertainment business, with advertisers avoiding spending on new campaigns and consumers cutting back on everything from DVDs to travel.

The deal is also expensive. It values Marvel at 37 times its estimated 2009 earnings, and offers shareholders a 29 percent premium to Friday’s closing price. Standard & Poor’s reacted by placing Disney’s credit rating on its negative watchlist, saying it may need to issue new debt even as earnings stagnate or fall in the recession.

But the risk of overpaying did not deter Disney from seeking out a deal to address an area of concern among investors: How can it better reach more young males.

“This helps give Disney more important exposure to the young male demographic that they have sort of lost some ground with in recent years,” said David Joyce at Miller Tabak & Co.

Disney has long been a blockbuster brand with girls thanks to characters such as “Hannah Montana,” “Cinderella” and “Snow White,” but has struggled to achieve the same kind of success with boys.

Movies including “Iron Man 2,” the sequel to the smash hit about a billionaire playboy with a high-tech suit of armor due to hit theaters in 2010, or 2011’s “Spider-Man 4″ and “Avengers”, should help resolve that issue best payday loan.

Disney will also be able to use its marketing and entertainment clout — stretching from ABC to cable television to theme parks — to promote and build characters such as Thor in ways Marvel never could.

The deal to buy the 70-year-old studio — which began life as an arm of a pulp fiction publisher in 1930 before bankruptcy, then rose to prominence in the past few years following Spider-Man — is Disney’s largest since the $7.6 billion purchase of Pixar in 2006, and it made waves.

Shares in DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc spiked 6.5 percent on speculation it too may become a takeover target.

But analysts raised questions about companies like Viacom Inc, Discovery Communications Inc, and Hasbro Inc that have existing business partnerships with Marvel. Hasbro stands to lose its chance to acquire valuable content for a new TV venture with Discovery, given that Disney is likely to hoard Marvel content for itself.

UNDER-PROMISING?

Disney agreed to pay a total of $30 per share in cash plus about 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share owned. The deal was approved by the boards of both companies.

The deal is expected to gain approval from antitrust regulators, said Evan Stewart, an antitrust expert with law firm Zuckerman Spaeder LLP. 

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Despite its name, the Airport Currency Exchange, a bare-bones operation across Interstate 70 from Lambert International Airport, doesn’t trade in euros, pesos or British pounds.

Instead, you can pay your electric, gas and phone bills there. And if you’re short on funds, the exchange can give you a short-term, high-interest loan. Missouri’s Public Counsel wants that to end.

The state’s consumer advocate for utility issues is hoping to prevent payday loan stores from doubling as utility payment centers.

In a recent filing with utility regulators, the Public Counsel asked for sweeping changes in billing and payment practices that include eliminating various payment fees. The proposal also would require utilities to open company-run payment centers and end the relationship between utilities and payday lenders.

Deputy General Counsel Mike Dandino said customers who most often used payday loan services were poor, elderly or living paycheck to paycheck. Many of the same customers either face threats of disconnection or have fallen behind on bills, making them easy targets for high-interest loans.

"It is not in the interest of consumers to have utility companies steer customers to these predatory lenders," Dandino said in the filing.

The Public Service Commission has yet to act on the petition. If the five-member commission decides to go ahead with a formal rule-making process, it would takes months and involve taking public comments and a hearing.

The recommendations are sure to draw stiff opposition from AmerenUE, Laclede and AT&T. They say that opening and operating payment centers across the area would be too expensive and that eliminating other payment sites would mean a loss of convenience for customers who may have to travel farther to pay their bills.

Richard J. Mark, senior vice president of energy delivery at AmerenUE, said the utility tried to provide customers as many options as possible, including payment centers spread across its 25,000-square-mile service area.

Eliminating even some of those options could especially hurt customers in rural areas and those who need to pay bills immediately to avoid disconnection, he said.

"By eliminating options, you really create hardships for customers," Mark said in an interview.

Nationally and in Missouri, payday loan stores have drawn increased scrutiny from regulators and consumer groups in recent years.

In 2007, the National Consumer Law Center, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, urged regulators to end the relationship. The group said the added convenience of having more locations to pay bills was outweighed by steering vulnerable customers into the hands of those pitching high-interest loans.

Payday loans are generally defined as short-term cash advances usually secured by a post-dated personal check. In Missouri, the maximum loan is $500 and interest charges can’t total more than 75 percent of the principal.

Still, the average interest rate on a payday loan in Missouri last year was 431 percent, or $47.95 on the average two-week loan of $231 — a reason the state has been criticized for its lax regulation of payday lenders, at least compared with neighboring states.

"Regulated monopolies and the state PSC should not be a in a position where they’re encouraging the use of these services," said John Coffman, a lawyer and former Missouri Public Counsel who has in the past worked for consumer groups including AARP and Consumer Council of Missouri.

The Public Counsel’s proposal doesn’t include evidence that utility customers are taking out high-interest loans to pay their bills; it only suggests that the relationship between utilities and payday lenders makes doing so more convenient.

In fact, prohibiting utility payments at payday loan stores also doesn’t guarantee that a cash-strapped customer won’t take out a high-interest loan and use the proceeds to pay their bill at a supermarket or bank.

About half of AmerenUE and Laclede customers still pay their bills by mail, and only about 10 percent pay in person through a third-party agent. And most of those do so at grocery stores or banks, not payday loan stores, spokesmen said.

Neither utility has a direct relationships with payday lenders. Both companies contract with FirsTech Inc. to recruit and run a network of agents and transmit payments.

Transaction fees at payment centers are capped at $1, and utilities get no part of the money. In fact, AmerenUE and Laclede subsidize the fees received by businesses that serve as payment agents.

The utilities also get no part of convenience fees charged for credit and debit card payments made electronically.

AmerenUE customers who want to pay online or by phone with a credit or debit card are assessed a $3.50 "convenience fee" by Speedpay, the vendor. Laclede similarly offers customers the ability to pay with a credit or debit card through ChoicePay for a $2.95 fee.

Justin Gioia, a Laclede spokesman, said that of the 40 percent of customers who pay their bills electronically, less than 2 percent use the convenience fee option. Only 4 percent of AmerenUE customers pay by credit or debit.

Both utilities offer customers free options for paying bills electronically via check or direct debit.

Regardless, the Public Counsel sees the convenience fees as unnecessary and wants regulators to require utilities to operate company payment centers.

AmerenUE’s Mark said the cost of renting and staffing offices across much of the state for the benefit of a relative few customers who would use them would be expensive and an unfair burden on the rest of the utility’s customers.

Eliminating credit and debit card convenience fees, a piece of which goes to the credit card companies such as Mastercard and Visa, would also mean higher rates for all customers, not just those who use the service, he said.

Meanwhile, AT&T is challenging the accuracy of the Public Counsel’s rule-making petition, which claims the telephone company is charging customers $2.49 if they want to receive a paper copy of their local phone bill.

"AT&T Missouri does not charge customers to receive a paper copy of their AT&T local telephone bill," company spokesman Kerry Hibbs said in an e-mail.

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