As the daughter of a Union Ironworker, unions have played a role in my life for fifty years. There but for the grace of the unions go I. I remember my Dad going on strike a few times as a child. And in hindsight, I know that my middle class childhood would not have been possible without a union.
He left Massapequa, Long Island most mornings around 5. When we were little, with only one car, either Mom left us four kids in bed for a few minutes and drove him to the station (horrors!), or he walked the two miles himself. Train, subway, bus. Two hours later, his work day began. Worked all day on a construction site, got back on the bus, subway, train. Sometimes had to walk home as well. I vividly remember him coming in the door at 5 p.m., disheveled and exhausted. Only to deal with four kids who had been warned all day to "wait til your father gets home". And he handled it all with humor and grace. I never heard one complaint.
When I married, and my husband-to-be approached my Dad, asking if he could get him into the union, my father's advice forged my future: It's a hard life, do something else. And so we did. We moved west, went back to school, became a white collar worker and an artist. Now I know alot of conservatives personally through my husband's job and it breaks my heart the way they talk so casually about people without decent jobs and wages and healthcare. I've turned away from alot of my "friends" over the past few years because of it.
But my philosophy on unions has never waivered, regardless of my life's path: eliminate unions tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, wages will plummet and everything unions have fought for for over a hundred years will disappear...rapidly...as well.
Most people haven't a clue how much unions contribute to their lives. How the minority of people who join unions fight for the rights of all workers. How much their wages depend on the struggles and collective bargaining of union members. Some of my cousins, and their kids...union members themselves, have been lured by the false witness of Fox "news" and hate unions. This hatred of everything their own fathers stood for is a cancer on our society and a real threat to workers all over America. Even my retired ironworker Dad had to be wrestled away from Fox "news" at one point. That's another story for another day, but now....he's PISSED at those God Damned Republican Bastards!
Hopefully the unions are putting together some ads connecting the dots for people. As in...40 hour work weeks, weekends, minimum wage, child labor laws, vacation time, time and a half for overtime, safety regulations, employer-sponsored health insurance, and on and on and on.
Got weekends? Thank a Union Member!
Democrats and unions would be wise, IMHO, to adopt my genius plan: an advertising blitz reminding people of what the unions and the democratic party have fought for and won for the American public. Always against the gale force winds of the corporations and their lackeys, now occupying the seat of power in the republican party. Come on people, there's gotta be a Madman (or woman) amongst us!
Got Social Security? Thank a democrat!
As in "It's a Wonderful Life"...imagine life without unions....
An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have been like if he never existed.
Let's paint an ugly picture of what life would be like without unions. We're talkin' Potterville, people.
Scott Walker made a classic blunder. In his arrogance and ignorance of history, he stepped in a gigantic pile of doo-doo. Now what will we do with this gift we've been handed?
Union members, their sons and daughters, mothers and fathers and all the frustrated George Baileys out there are ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with the unions who made all of our lives better. But give us something to fight with. It's gonna be a battle royale. One we can win.
Their plan has been laid bare...Let them eat cake! They think this is their moment...when we are reduced to fighting for the crumbs. But, it's our moment.
This is a historical pivot point. Too bad those conservatives who disdain book learnin' don't read history...as in Marie Antoinette/French Revolution. That little chapter of history didn't work out to well for the elites, did it now?