Holding the Fort, Birthing a New World – or Why Labor Unions Matter

I have been asked to deliver a kind of monologue on the role of labor unions in the search for a good society. I'll begin by stating that I’ve been a union member for 35 years. I've been active in unions as a rank-and-file member, as a steward, as an officer, and as support staff, in five different union locals in the AFT, NEA, and UAW as well as in the IWW. Members of my family have been involved in unions for at least a century. I’ve never known a time when unions were not a part of my life, and so I find it difficult to imagine a social movement from which unions are absent.