My Father Built This: A Labor Day Reflection

[Omaha Steve]

http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/my-father-built-this-a-labor/

My father was a construction electrician. Attending trade school after World War II under the GI Bill (he was in the Army Air Force, serving in North Africa), he then apprenticed through the electrical workers union, the IBEW (Local 134). He made a good wage, especially for a man with only a high school diploma.

He worked hard and long hours, sometimes, always hoping for "overtime," especially those Sunday, holiday and overnight shifts when he earned "double bubble" wages. He would point with pride as we would sometimes go into Downtown Chicago, traveling from our comfortable, but modest, home in the north suburbs, to the skyscrapers that make Chicago's skyline one of the most beautiful in the world: the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower), the AON Building (then the Standard Oil Building), the John Hancock Building, McCormick Place, and so many others.

He helped build my alma mater, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the vast expansion many years ago of O'Hare International Airport. He was a lifelong Democrat, teaching us that the labor unions made our lives possible. When he died, the IBEW took care of my mother, who was legally blind, helping her stay independent in many ways with my dad's union pension and medical coverage.

The Republicans would have us believe that labor unions are evil, the bane of forward progress in this country. They must be sought out and destroyed. The Repulbicans are wrong.

FULL 2 page story at link.

[freshwest]

1. Love it! This story needs to be told, and often.

[Sherman A1]

2. Thanks for Posting