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While unions did not play a part in my family life when I was being brought up, my early years were most certainly spent in a working-class community.

I was an organizer in the Food, Agricultural and Tobacco Workers Union down in North Carolina.

My father was a meat worker. He was a union organizer in the meat workers union.

I come from labor country. My mom was a teacher and was very involved in the teachers' union.

I'm a union guy; I've always been. I've been in SAG 35 years; my father was a garbage man, a sanitation man, for the city, a union guy.

My mother was a teacher, my father was a community organizer. I come from a working class background.

My father was a member of the Teamsters Union in California, where he helped to organize better health care for workers. My mother worked for more than 20 years on an assembly line.

I worked as a secretary, a waitress and a dance teacher - all in high school.

Back in early 1983, my dad was tasked with keeping unions from organizing in his company's distribution centers. His work pulled him away from home for months on end.

My parents were both union members, and I grew up hearing how important it was to empower workers and have fair labor practices.