Oi. One of the true points of disagreement I have with my father is unions. No, they are not blameless. Yes, they are sometimes mobbed up. But I'll tell you something, they came about for a reason. Before workers found a form of countervailing power in unions they were brutally oppressed by the companies they worked for. You toed the line or they would chop your head off. You took what they paid you.
My father in law was a really good man, the perfect father in law and grandfather. Everyone loved Poppa. He would toss my daughters up in the air and they both would laugh in delight. He was second generation Lithuanian American. As a young man he worked at Sears in Springfield. He had a commie streak, I guess you could call it, and tried to organize a union at Sears. They ran him out of Springfield. Literally, he was unemployable. He and Pat moved their rapidly growing family to Chicago. For which I am grateful ;-)
