All the time our union was progressing very nicely. There were lectures to make us understand what trades unionism is and our real position in the labor movement.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
People have to be reminded that unions played a very historic role in our economy.
Starting that union was something I believed in very strongly.
I think we will see a united labor movement again. When workers unite they're stronger. The same goes for unions.
And the success of the union movement, historically, has always been to benefit all working men and women - not just people who belong to the union.
What's going on in this country? Unions stand against those trends. We've got to somehow insulate the robust American economy from this global economy that seems to want to devour our standard of living.
What until then seemed impossible to achieve has become a fact of life. We have won the right to association in trade unions independent from the authorities, founded and shaped by the working people themselves.
The trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers... It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish.
This led me to understand that trade unionism, the instrument of working-class liberation and of social change could, and indeed should, be also an instrument of industrial progress.
I'm a lifelong believer in trade unionism.
Working people are under the worst attack in 80 years. Never has there been a stronger need for a stronger union movement.