DETROIT - "I'm a labor guy," said Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, to a cheering throng in Hart Plaza on Labor Day. "I believe in the right to collective bargaining, to organize. I happen to think we need a Department of Labor that believes in labor."

Obama addressed a crowd of tens of thousands, many of whom completed annual Labor Day lines of march along Michigan and Woodward avenues. His Labor Day visit to Detroit represented the first by a Democratic presidential contender since Michael Dukakis in1988.

On Labor Day weekend, he also made Michigan stops in Battle Creek and Monroe, reminding his audience that he's the candidate most likely to support the nation's unions.

"Because of organized labor, we have the 40-hour work week, minimum wage, overtime pay, and safety rules," Obama said. "All workers have come to enjoy those things because of organized labor."

Obama was joined on the dais by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Teamsters President James Hoffa, and UAW President Ron Gettlefinger. "We can't afford four more years of the policies that have hurt you and your families," Sweeney said.

Obama kept his speech short in deference to the victims of Hurricane Gustav, which was just coming ashore on the Gulf on Labor Day morning. He asked the audience to stop for a silent moment of prayer for those victims, and to donate to the American Red Cross.

"Today is not a day for political speeches," Obama said. "I hope you don't mind, we don't know what the impact of Hurrican Gustav will be. There is a time for us to argue politics and a time for us to come together for us as Americans. When we show solidarity with those folks in Mississippi, Alabama, and the folks of Texas and Louisiana, we are expressing the true spirit of the labor movement.

"Because the idea behind the labor movement is that you don't walk alone. Each of us is vulnerable on our own. But when we are unified, when we come together in a more perfect union, when we understand that I am my brother's keeper and I am my sister's keeper, when we recognized ourselves in each other, when we understand that anybody fleeing from a storm, that could be us, then we understand what motivated people so many years ago to make a union. That's what today should be about."

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL candidate Barack Obama addresses a Labor Day crowd in Detroit. More Labor Day photos can be found inside this edition.