Liberaldad, I'm sorry I missed this. It's a great post, and a very important one. So many people are in your position, but we Democrats sure aren't doing a good enough job of standing by them, or even talking to them. Bernie Sanders is the only person I know of, who has consistently sought them out, they respond in kind.
FYI...My paternal grandparents, who immigrated to our country as children from Romania, met in a sweatshop in New York, and became members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, which did represent some men. He ended up rising within the union and became a shop steward, and could frugally raise four sons on his salary. In one of my first jobs after I graduated from college, I worked in local news at NBC, and was a member of NABET.
Well said!!! I’m lucky because I landed in a career I loved. But I hear your aspirations for a happier path, not just getting by. Donna Clay nailed the issues with unions. I have personal experience too long to list (without adult beverages). While some have improved working conditions, their member votes have hurt the middle class. I’m still hoping for a tipping point that brings us back to sanity at least.
This is all so true for so many people. And the propaganda against unions has worked too effectively. Keeping people just above the poverty line is exactly what they want to do (which I talk about in my most recent post as well.) We need to take our power back. That should be our only goal. Then join any effort that is doing just that.
Erik, I do not take this article as complaint, rather truth put to words that some of us (me) feel, but cannot formulate into words. I am a retired teacher, not because I loved the profession, although I loved my students. I taught special education for 8 years of my 27 year career. I knew I would never take in the $, but being divorced when my daughter was 1, teaching was a path to earn enough, and not have my child in daycare from 6:30 - 5:00 every working day. Also when of school age, we would have the same breaks, so…choice made, and I don’t regret it!
I come from a strong union family, and I am a union loyalist. My union, more than once, took up abuses in two different districts, and I remain grateful. Now in retirement, with hopes of fulfilling my life desires (travel, volunteer work, self enriching classes) those hopes are, hopefully, temporarily dashed. Instead I am helping to organize, attending protests, calls, letters, amplifying important issues for families, seniors, targeted groups. That is OK because when I look into my grandson’s eyes, read him a story, cuddle him, I know this all is now my life’s work. I want him to know Nans didn’t sit back, I can’t! For all our kids, I want them to have at LEAST what I had.
While I agree, the labor unions in this country are partially to blame for their own demise. They, like many other workers in this country, continue to vote against their own interests. In 2024, for example, the unions had the opportunity to vote for a candidate that clearly supported unions; and former President Biden broke with tradition and walked the picket lines with them. But union leaders refused to endorse VP Harris and most of the rank and file voted for Trump, who has expressed his disdain for unions. Unions continue to support Republican candidates who couldn’t care less about them. Why? My observation leads me to the conclusion that they still don’t believe union membership should be open to African-American or Latino workers. Racial prejudice is expensive to maintain. union leaders and the rank and file that continue to support anti-union Republican candidates due to their alignment with anti -black or anti-minority politics have no one but themselves to blame for the economic realities they’ve faced for the last several decades. Until union leaders and members chart a different political course, the path forward will continue to be a rocky one. Happy Labor Day!
Many changes need to be made to make the changes, workers are willing, corporations are not, was a time the "Company" took care of their employees, fair wage, health coverage, etc. Those days went the way of the Dodo!! I spent 45 years doing jobs i accepted as necessary to survive, take care of my family. Now retired, but back at a new career, this time in my late 60s doing what I enjoy! This country does need social medicine (think Canada), we need a flat tax to force all people to not have a tax break (think billionaires), and we need a government who will fix the problems of family leave, school, just doing what's right for the people who put them there (think constituents who were lied to) and then work toward your dreams!! If you do what you love, you never go to work, or it at least feels that way. Thank you for the article, it speaks to the truth nobody discusses or tries to hide behind lip service.
Liberaldad, thank you for making yourself vulnerable and sharing your reality.
I was locked in the golden handcuffs of company health care for decades. Swallowing your dreams for the betterment of the family is a noble and expected act, as your true desires fade away.
Labor Day was a protest day for me.
The work you do here on Substack has purpose and you are a prime mover of the resistance. I hope your coffers here grows, you are earning it.
Times like these, should make us thankful for what we have.
You didn't come off as a complainer. People need to have an idea where you come from. It adds credibility to your words.
I came up in the 60's... blue collar worker family turned blue collar worker in the Blackstone Valley of Massachusetts.
Back in the day, even non-union jobs often paid enough for a one-income family to survive and even enjoy a few extras.
Companies hired you based on your experience, your personality and demeanor, your steady work habits (yet understood that, in those days, it was common to leave a good job for a better opportunity), AND they paid your starting pay based on all of that.
We had health insurance paid for by the company with great coverage. Sometimes, for the family plan, the company might have you pay a very small amount to cover the spouse and kids.
We would start the job with perhaps at least a week of paid vacation, plus paid sick time, plus paid personal days.
If your spouse or kid was sick and needed you at home, the company would often ask you why you were still there, tell you to go home and take care of your family, that family was more important than your job, and that your job was safe.
The company paid annual cost of living adjustments, gave merit raises based on your job performance, increased your paid time off as described above annually.
Companies actually paid you for ideas for ways for the company to improve product/service quality, costs, safety, etc. that they used successfully.
Companies paid you for innovative ideas.
Companies actually promoted from within BEFORE looking to hire from outside.
Then, I managed to get into General Motors in Framingham, Massachusetts and the UAW (United Auto Workers).
I was there just under three years when the new contract was being negotiated.
The older, ready-to-retire workers wanted the huge pay raises and benefits. Their voice outweighed our newer, younger voices, and voted us right out of a contract in Framingham. GM closed the Framingham plant.
The older workers who were going to retire sold us younger workers out of jobs.
It has been downhill ever since.
My Wife and I did all of the right things throughout life, but in our case, we got hit with too many "life's circumstances" and here we are.
We now are dependent on our Social Security income.
We live paycheck to paycheck (which is now threatened under the current administration.
Now, my Wife and I are dependent only on our Social Security benefits, living paycheck to paycheck and is now being threatened by the current administration.
Hi Lance. I appreciate your input. I also come from a town of dying unions. GM and steel mills were a way of life. The job was reliable and you got paid a good salary and benefits. Gone are those days unfortunately, and I expect to work until I'm unable to any longer.
I am sure you remember the words : there’s so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it behoves the rest if us to say which is the best of us!!
We are all human beings and that makes us flawed!!
I worked in the jails while going to college ( some called it “ in the bottom of the sack” ) and met drive by shooters, rapists … etc but also met some very confused individuals who had really been abused to the point that their personality was pitiful and sad… so I don’t believe it helpful or even real to paint whole parts of anything with just one broad definition
It is more helpful and intuitive to gather information on each individual person, then there may be likenesses to work with
I also learned that change comes slowly for us and negativity will only stop a behavior , while positive feedback or credit will cause changes forward in behaviors
Someone’s opinion may just be noise ( which does nothing) and then there is information which can at times be used to cause changes… in thought or behavior
This is it, Erik, and it is exactly the endgame of corporate oligarchy. To keep the workforce at the job while being perennially dissatisfied with the job IS the magic trick they pulled on us. We get just enough to keep the ends within sight of each other but never enough to make them meet, thus limiting mobility and killing aspirations. I’m pretty sure this is why Bidens policies were so unpopular with corporate America; too much mobility caused by opportunity had started to tip the field back to us. I’m probably wring but I do know this…as I enter my 7th decade I will never be able to not work
Liberaldad, I'm sorry I missed this. It's a great post, and a very important one. So many people are in your position, but we Democrats sure aren't doing a good enough job of standing by them, or even talking to them. Bernie Sanders is the only person I know of, who has consistently sought them out, they respond in kind.
FYI...My paternal grandparents, who immigrated to our country as children from Romania, met in a sweatshop in New York, and became members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, which did represent some men. He ended up rising within the union and became a shop steward, and could frugally raise four sons on his salary. In one of my first jobs after I graduated from college, I worked in local news at NBC, and was a member of NABET.
I'm glad you still read it. Unions are crucial when they are given the appropriate amount of bargaining power.
Well said!!! I’m lucky because I landed in a career I loved. But I hear your aspirations for a happier path, not just getting by. Donna Clay nailed the issues with unions. I have personal experience too long to list (without adult beverages). While some have improved working conditions, their member votes have hurt the middle class. I’m still hoping for a tipping point that brings us back to sanity at least.
Man I hope so, otherwise I have a lot of years to go before I can even consider retiring.
Me too
This is all so true for so many people. And the propaganda against unions has worked too effectively. Keeping people just above the poverty line is exactly what they want to do (which I talk about in my most recent post as well.) We need to take our power back. That should be our only goal. Then join any effort that is doing just that.
Bingo
Erik, I do not take this article as complaint, rather truth put to words that some of us (me) feel, but cannot formulate into words. I am a retired teacher, not because I loved the profession, although I loved my students. I taught special education for 8 years of my 27 year career. I knew I would never take in the $, but being divorced when my daughter was 1, teaching was a path to earn enough, and not have my child in daycare from 6:30 - 5:00 every working day. Also when of school age, we would have the same breaks, so…choice made, and I don’t regret it!
I come from a strong union family, and I am a union loyalist. My union, more than once, took up abuses in two different districts, and I remain grateful. Now in retirement, with hopes of fulfilling my life desires (travel, volunteer work, self enriching classes) those hopes are, hopefully, temporarily dashed. Instead I am helping to organize, attending protests, calls, letters, amplifying important issues for families, seniors, targeted groups. That is OK because when I look into my grandson’s eyes, read him a story, cuddle him, I know this all is now my life’s work. I want him to know Nans didn’t sit back, I can’t! For all our kids, I want them to have at LEAST what I had.
That is what it is all about!
While I agree, the labor unions in this country are partially to blame for their own demise. They, like many other workers in this country, continue to vote against their own interests. In 2024, for example, the unions had the opportunity to vote for a candidate that clearly supported unions; and former President Biden broke with tradition and walked the picket lines with them. But union leaders refused to endorse VP Harris and most of the rank and file voted for Trump, who has expressed his disdain for unions. Unions continue to support Republican candidates who couldn’t care less about them. Why? My observation leads me to the conclusion that they still don’t believe union membership should be open to African-American or Latino workers. Racial prejudice is expensive to maintain. union leaders and the rank and file that continue to support anti-union Republican candidates due to their alignment with anti -black or anti-minority politics have no one but themselves to blame for the economic realities they’ve faced for the last several decades. Until union leaders and members chart a different political course, the path forward will continue to be a rocky one. Happy Labor Day!
Many changes need to be made to make the changes, workers are willing, corporations are not, was a time the "Company" took care of their employees, fair wage, health coverage, etc. Those days went the way of the Dodo!! I spent 45 years doing jobs i accepted as necessary to survive, take care of my family. Now retired, but back at a new career, this time in my late 60s doing what I enjoy! This country does need social medicine (think Canada), we need a flat tax to force all people to not have a tax break (think billionaires), and we need a government who will fix the problems of family leave, school, just doing what's right for the people who put them there (think constituents who were lied to) and then work toward your dreams!! If you do what you love, you never go to work, or it at least feels that way. Thank you for the article, it speaks to the truth nobody discusses or tries to hide behind lip service.
Thank you David. It will be a long climb back unfortunately.
Liberaldad, thank you for making yourself vulnerable and sharing your reality.
I was locked in the golden handcuffs of company health care for decades. Swallowing your dreams for the betterment of the family is a noble and expected act, as your true desires fade away.
Labor Day was a protest day for me.
The work you do here on Substack has purpose and you are a prime mover of the resistance. I hope your coffers here grows, you are earning it.
Times like these, should make us thankful for what we have.
Thank you Jack and B. You guys are amazing.
Hear! Hear!
I'm baaaaaaack!!!!
Hi, Erik.
You didn't come off as a complainer. People need to have an idea where you come from. It adds credibility to your words.
I came up in the 60's... blue collar worker family turned blue collar worker in the Blackstone Valley of Massachusetts.
Back in the day, even non-union jobs often paid enough for a one-income family to survive and even enjoy a few extras.
Companies hired you based on your experience, your personality and demeanor, your steady work habits (yet understood that, in those days, it was common to leave a good job for a better opportunity), AND they paid your starting pay based on all of that.
We had health insurance paid for by the company with great coverage. Sometimes, for the family plan, the company might have you pay a very small amount to cover the spouse and kids.
We would start the job with perhaps at least a week of paid vacation, plus paid sick time, plus paid personal days.
If your spouse or kid was sick and needed you at home, the company would often ask you why you were still there, tell you to go home and take care of your family, that family was more important than your job, and that your job was safe.
The company paid annual cost of living adjustments, gave merit raises based on your job performance, increased your paid time off as described above annually.
Companies actually paid you for ideas for ways for the company to improve product/service quality, costs, safety, etc. that they used successfully.
Companies paid you for innovative ideas.
Companies actually promoted from within BEFORE looking to hire from outside.
Then, I managed to get into General Motors in Framingham, Massachusetts and the UAW (United Auto Workers).
I was there just under three years when the new contract was being negotiated.
The older, ready-to-retire workers wanted the huge pay raises and benefits. Their voice outweighed our newer, younger voices, and voted us right out of a contract in Framingham. GM closed the Framingham plant.
The older workers who were going to retire sold us younger workers out of jobs.
It has been downhill ever since.
My Wife and I did all of the right things throughout life, but in our case, we got hit with too many "life's circumstances" and here we are.
We now are dependent on our Social Security income.
We live paycheck to paycheck (which is now threatened under the current administration.
Now, my Wife and I are dependent only on our Social Security benefits, living paycheck to paycheck and is now being threatened by the current administration.
Hi Lance. I appreciate your input. I also come from a town of dying unions. GM and steel mills were a way of life. The job was reliable and you got paid a good salary and benefits. Gone are those days unfortunately, and I expect to work until I'm unable to any longer.
It is sad what this country has become in the name of Greed.
Companies used to know that good employees were appreciated and paid well and were happy and that they were the backbone of the company's success.
Bottom line thinking has ruined our workforce
It truly has.
"Back in the day", companies profited just fine when they catered to their good employees to keep them happy and to keep them as good employees.
Greed took that away.
I am a Finn and agree with everything you said.
My American Son worked 3 jobs to help with his undergraduate tuition at Stanford. And had a little enterprise with his buddies.
It takes a lot of SISU to advance in America, a lot of perseverance.
The income gap between the Haves and the Not-Haves is widening and deepening and seems to be overlapping the educational opportunities.
The middle class is eroding, isn’t it?
Thank you for your posts!
It has, the gap is widened and continues to do so. The middle class is all but gone now.
I am sure you remember the words : there’s so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it behoves the rest if us to say which is the best of us!!
We are all human beings and that makes us flawed!!
I worked in the jails while going to college ( some called it “ in the bottom of the sack” ) and met drive by shooters, rapists … etc but also met some very confused individuals who had really been abused to the point that their personality was pitiful and sad… so I don’t believe it helpful or even real to paint whole parts of anything with just one broad definition
It is more helpful and intuitive to gather information on each individual person, then there may be likenesses to work with
I also learned that change comes slowly for us and negativity will only stop a behavior , while positive feedback or credit will cause changes forward in behaviors
Someone’s opinion may just be noise ( which does nothing) and then there is information which can at times be used to cause changes… in thought or behavior
This is it, Erik, and it is exactly the endgame of corporate oligarchy. To keep the workforce at the job while being perennially dissatisfied with the job IS the magic trick they pulled on us. We get just enough to keep the ends within sight of each other but never enough to make them meet, thus limiting mobility and killing aspirations. I’m pretty sure this is why Bidens policies were so unpopular with corporate America; too much mobility caused by opportunity had started to tip the field back to us. I’m probably wring but I do know this…as I enter my 7th decade I will never be able to not work
Great point! Brilliant!
Thank you