I will miss Ed in prime time. IMHO he was the only voice I could hear on TV talking about the importance of unions.
I often mention here I was raised in a very Republican household, but my family never forced their views down my throat. I was allowed to experience the world on my own and shape my own views. But there was one place where my parents did tell me what to think.
Unions.
I was taught unions are "cool". They are needed. You don't fuck with a union. Unions rock!
I recall my father telling me as a kid if you used non-union labor your project might burn to the ground. I don't know if this was true, but maybe just thinking it "might" happen meant using non-union labor was just not an option.
A little more below the fold.
I don't know where you live. But where I live we still have picket lines. Maybe not that often anymore. But we still have them.
I was taught you never, not in a million years, cross one of them.
Last year the large BP gas station in my town (small rural town BTW) decided they were going to redo their entire parking lot, tanks, you name it. Use non-union labor.
Workers, and they were not even on the project, just objecting to the general idea, started to protest.
A picket line was formed. When I went down there, because I am a geek on stuff like this, the place was effectively closed. The workers were sitting out front, cause nobody would walk in to buy anything.
Took two days and then they started to use union workers. I guess the people driving by the place honking for those protesting worked.