Why UNIONS?

Forget history at your own peril. The traditional concept is "Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them." There were long, bitter and violent battles to earn the right to collectively bargain, to have unions, to strike. These union rights were part of riding us of child labor, protecting worker safety, challenging job discrimination, securing better wages and benefits - the list goes on. But a generation passes and those memories are lost! We take what our parents and grandparents fought for for granted. It was unions that launched the successful rise of the middle class in America and it is the loss of unions that is part of the growing gap between rich and poor in this country. The U S Census reported in 2009, "The top-earning 20% of Americans — those making more than $100,000 each year — received 49.4% of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4% earned by those below the poverty line, according to newly released Census figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968."

That's why unions!