Reply #31: Greetings brothers and sisters.

[benfranklin1776]

My family has been involved in the labor movement for generations. Two of my uncles were blacklisted and beaten trying to start the USWA near Pittsburgh and another became a plaintiff in NLRB v. Jones and Laughlin Steel the case in which the United States Supreme Court under pressure from FDR recognized the constitutionality of the Wagner Act (the NLRA-National Labor Relations Act) and enshrined in our law the principle that the right to organize for collective and concerted action and to collectively bargain is a fundamental right under American Law. I was proud to serve as a grievance man in a Steelworkers bargaining unit representing professional employees in Pittsburgh.
Fundamentally what is lost today in the national discourse is the simple fact that workers create the wealth of this nation and are entitled to their rightful share of their creation. Unions are a vital means to achieve that goal and to advance the cause of workers generally as they fight for laws that benefit all workers. As our bloody labor history shows, the robber barons and the malefactors of great wealth will, unchecked by law or organized labor, will inevitably use their workers as disposable commodities and rob as much as they can from the fruits of their labors.