“Justice for jobs” was the rallying cry today on what was dubbed “Labor Day at the Capitol” by Democratic lawmakers and area labor unions.

House Speaker Terrance Carroll fired up the crowd with all the fervor that he usually reserves for Sunday mornings, when he occasionally preaches to a local congregation.

Carroll began by asking the crowd if anyone wanted to get baptized across the street at the First Baptist church.

“ I won’t hold you down too long,” Carroll said,  “just long enough to get the devil out of you.”

But Carroll said today he was getting at a different kind of salvation–from underemployment.

“Anybody can talk about jobs. You’re here to talk about good jobs … good, well-paying jobs that help to put food on the table. There’s a lot of folks around here that like to talk about jobs, but when it gets right down to it, they don’t care if it’s a decent job,” said Carroll.

“We’re committed to making sure that every job we talk about is a good job. It’s not a fake job. It’s not an imaginary job, and we’ll do everything we can to create good jobs in Colorado.  Our commitment to you is we’re not going to try and fool you. We aren’t going to mess around with you,” Carroll pledged to the small crowd of about 100.

Attending the rally was Rep. Joel Judd, D-Denver who said he was there to support jobs, as well.

“To me, people being able to get a decent job is pretty important. We’ve got a tough economy right now, and I meet a lot of people who are out of work, and anything we can do to help, I’m all for it,” said Judd.

Several of the attendees were part of an effort to unionize employees at the Pepsi Center and Coors Field who work in the food and beverage service. Members of that effort, called Unite Here, said they came to support the efforts of organized labor.

“We’re trying to get a democratic union established at the Pepsi Center and Coors Field because we need job security and respect,” said a Pepsi Center worker.

Another of the group mentioned a trend that she finds threatening to their livelihoods.

“We’re finding that they’re using more volunteers, and our members are losing hours, and we’re fighting for job security. We need to keep paying jobs and not be replaced by volunteers,” said Pat Lambert of Unite Here.

Asked about what they hoped to accomplish today with the legislature, they boiled it down to three things:
“Good jobs, job security and jobs above the minimum wage.”

Unite Here represents 30,000 food, beverage and retail workers at 73 airports in the United States and Canada.