Union Label

The United States has gotten away from the days of strong union feelings.  Workers must organize.  Don't cross the picket line is what I was taught.  Your own family put their time in to the picket lines.  Support your fellow workers.    One of my cousins took a truck driving job as scab labor once when he really needed a job.  He was heading back on I-75 N when he was advised by CB radio to stop the truck and leave his job.  He ignored this request initially.  But when the bullet slammed through his windshield a few moments later, he was a convert.  He pulled the truck over and left his job; had someone pick him up on the side of the interstate.    I'm not making any judgments here; however, for unions to be effective, they must be respected.

Two things happened in the United States that were instrumental in destroying this country's labor movement.  The mob didn't help much when they nosed into union business in the US; really they made it all a joke.  Not much to take seriously with the mafia calling the shots, but the problem was that the unions were the only safety net standing between the employees and the bosses, factory owners, the money boys. 

President Ronald Reagan kicked in to the fray when he fired the air traffic controllers en masse in 1981; since they were public employees, a government union, they weren't allowed to strike.  Other government unions had violated this 1955 law in the past, but Reagan went after the air traffic controllers.  He then cowboyed up further and also banned the FAA from ever hiring back any of the fired workers.  In 1993, President Clinton overturned this decision; over 850 workers at least were hired back after 12 years. That Reaganonomic day was a turning point for the unions; they were effectively busted in the United States.   Every union in the country should have protested that action loud and clear, but they didn't and executive privilege ruled.  Consequently, labor stoppages which had been approximately 300 a year now dropped to 30 a year.  And the power of the unions in the United States was vanquished.