"Not unless you make it happen."

[Bouncy Ball]

"On October 4, 1970, my grandfather, Isaac Abraham Warshowsky, aged eighty-seven, died in his sleep in New York City. On the following Friday morning, his funeral was held. My mother and father attended, my two uncles from Brooklyn attended, my Aunt Minnie came up from Florida.

Also present were eight hundred and sixty-two members of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and Cloth, Hat and Cap Makers' Union. Also members of his family. In death as in life, they stood at his side. They had fought battles with him, bound the wounds of battle with him, had earned bread together and had broken it together.

When they spoke, they spoke in one voice, and they were heard. They were black, they were white, they were Irish, they were Polish, they were Catholic, they were Jews, they were one. That's what a union is: one...

Ladies and gentlemen, the textile industry, in which you are spending your lives and your substance, and in which your children and their children will spend their lives and their substance, is the only industry in the whole length and breadth of the United States of America that is not unionized. Therefore, they are free to exploit you, to cheat you, to lie to you, and to take away what is rightfully yours - your health, a decent wage, a fit place to work.

I would urge you to stop them by coming down to room 207 at the Golden Cherry Motel, to pick up a union card and to sign it... It comes from the Bible - according to the tribes of your fathers, ye shall inherit. It comes from Reuben Warshowsky - not unless you make it happen."

[liberal N proud]

1. The repukes are doing everything they can to beat the unions

Most American do not realize what the unions have done for them.
The safe, clean working environment
Health Insurance - companies would not have ever offered it if Unions would not have fought for it.
Pensions - Those who still get them should be grateful, Unions are responsible
Living Wages would never have been offered if Unions would not have made it happen.

All that the unions have done will disappear even for those companies who never unionized if unions disappear. And the man working in the non-union shops does not realize what he has been given.

I am no longer in a union but I still remember what the union did for me and my family, my father worked for 40 years in a union job. Meat Packing industry and I worked for a few years there as well. I learned very quickly why the union was there and that respect has never died.

Good Post Bouncy Ball

[Bouncy Ball]

2. I cannot be in a union.

In Texas it is against state law for educators to organize. We can have "professional organization" but we have no real collective bargaining power or other powers.

I believe in unions. And I believe sometimes everyone needs reminding of what they have done and continue to do for many Americans.

[liberal N proud]

3. Texas, sounds like some of bu$h's dirty work?

[Bouncy Ball]

4. No it pre-dates him.

But it still sucks pond scum through a crazy straw.

[Tux]

6. Very true

My dad was a member of UAW. My mom had 3 strokes and Parkinson's disease. If it wasn't for the health insurance that UAW fought for, my dad would have lost the house, his savings, and lost it all to help my mom. People don't understand the benefits those godless liberals that work in unions can do for our nation.

[Ysolde]

5. Thanks for the post.

I have never had a chance to work in a unionized job, but I grew up at the union hall (my dad was rep for the AFL-CIO all his life). I know what the union has done for me and all the idiots I work with. How do we make them see? Why do they think they "deserve" raises, pensions, and benefits when they refuse to work together for those ends for all? It drives me crazy that I work with so many men that claim to have "done it all on their own" and refuse to acknowledge that they wouldn't have squat without the work the unions have done.

I hate to say it, but I think things for workers are going to have to get much, much worse before people will lose their selfish ways and realize that "all for one and one for all" works and "I, me, mine" doesn't.