‘WHAT WOULD LARRY DAVID DO?’
The Writers’ Strike Helps All Of Us
I’m a third-generation union member in my family. It’s taught me that unions have benefits for everyone
Once I asked an aunt how often her husband had gone on strike with the United Auto Workers when he worked at the Caterpillar tractor plant in Peoria, Illinois.
“Every time there was a contract negotiation,” she said, looking surprised that I would even ask.
My uncle’s time on picket lines must have taken a toll on a single-income, working-class family with two children. But because the UAW pension plan had benefits for surviving spouses, my aunt had an easier old age than she would have had without those strikes for better contracts.
My maternal grandfather also worked for Caterpillar, and I became a third-generation union member when I took a job at a Cleveland newspaper that was a “closed shop,” a place where certain types of employees had to join the union.
I spent more than a decade in Local №1 of the Newspaper Guild, which received its number because American journalism unions began in its city. During those years, I saw firsthand how unions help all of us.
