Union Born & Raised

My great-grandfather knew Thomas Edison. GG Hines was one of the first union electricians. And my grandfather was in Local Union 58 of the IBEW, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. And my father. And both my brothers served Local 58 for many years. They marched in the parade every Labor Day for many years.

My husband is in the United Auto Workers, UAW, as was his father, and his grandfather, before him. I have uncles in the UWA as well. I’m in a union myself. A teacher’s union. My degrees are in English. And so I have a book suggestion for anyone who thinks the unions are too strong, too weak, too corrupt, too big: please read The Grapes of Wrath and get back to me. The author is John Steinbeck who worked canning fish in California.

And I’d like to dedicate this post to the person who unfriended me on Facebook because I didn’t fly an American flag on Memorial Day. Today, I’m letting my freak flag fly. And I am able to do that because of a little thing called collective bargaining.