Let's Hear It For Unions!!!

I was raised in New York City, so it may come as no surprise to you that I am a Yellow Dog Democrat and a Blue Collar union fanatic. When I was a boy, a Republican couldn't get arrested in New York, and most of my friends' fathers were in unions. I've been in lots of unions myself, in amongst my fifty-odd jobs. Some of those unions even did me some good.

There's a lot of pressure on unions now, a new round of union busting. Funny stuff, though. Recall that the great communicator, Ronald Reagan, was a big time union buster. Those air-traffic controllers and etc. Strange, he was also the only president in United States history to actually have been in a union, the Screen Actors Guild, of which he was the president for six terms. He was so flexible, that one, so situational. Hypocritical, you might say. While he was acting to destroy unions in our own country he was saying things about Solidarity in Poland like, "the most elemental human right . . . the right to belong to a free trade union." Slicker than Slick Willie, that one.

Now there's Mike Huckabee, the most dangerous man in America. He doesn't seem to know anything when they ask him questions in his many TV appearances. Asked: what would you do in Afghanistan, he says, "I don't know." He says that a lot, the poor guy doesn't seem to know shit from shoe polish. He knows about unions though. He told Greta Van Sustren last week that "unions have broken the bank . . ." and need to be knocked down a peg. He believes that the current asshole governor of Wisconsin is on the right track.

So who's done more for you in your working life? Unions or Mike Huckabee? Down south, how's that right-to-work stuff working out for you? Like that forty-hour-week? That overtime? How many sick days do you get? Remember your health benefits? Want them back? Retirement, wow, that's some nostalgia right there. Remember who your friends are. The unions are your friends.*

*If you make over $100,000 a year, please disregard this post.