Robert Reich approved toon:

[applegrove]

Remember: There's always strength in a union. Solidarity.

— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) 2025-12-25T17:00:19.367806Z

[kimbutgar]

1. Even though I'm a substitute teacher I still pay my union dues and sign the petitions.

My husband was in a union for 36 years for a major airline carrier. And he retired with a nice nest egg in IRA funds and benefits.

[Deuxcents]

2. Unions and their members built this country. Those opposed fought to tear it down so here we are.

[popsdenver]

12. And

the have succeeded in tearing away at Union membership starting with Reagan's shot heard across the nation, when he took out the Air Traffic Controllers Union........

And they are currently working on one of the largest unions in our country......the United States Postal Service's Union......
along with any and all Federal Employee's Union(s)

[markodochartaigh]

3. Even though

I was a registered nurse in Texas where unions for nurses were practically nonexistent, we still benefited from unions. The hospitals had to raise our wages to keep nurses from leaving for the coasts and Chicago. Thank you, Union Members!

[popsdenver]

13. The Republicans

used the "Right To Work" laws to alert the members to the fact that they didn't have to belong to the Union, and could become non-union, and collect the same benefits as the Union members, and pocket the union dues instead of contributing to the Union at their place of employment.......
The Repubs during the 80's and early 90's emasculated the NLRB, clearing the way to their destruction of the Union Membership.....

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. K&R

[multigraincracker]

5. Been retired for 23 years with great health insurance.

I still pay my dues voluntarily.

[appmanga]

9. My father was a union worker...

...who retired at 50 in 1985, has fantastic healthcare benefits in addition to Medicare, and has a pension with a cost-of-living adjustment.

Any working-class/middle-class person who's anti-union is an idiot.

[AZ8theist]

16. During my 25 years at Intel Arizona...

Came across a LOT of union contractors during various build phases of the project.
But the last 10 years saw more than a few with Trump stickers on their hard hats.

Talk about idiots.....

[soldierant]

6. I'd be willing to bet

that Paul Krugman would also approve.

[applegrove]

7. Oh yes. He's the best.

[calimary]

8. Always a good reminder.

Merry Christmas, everybody!!!

[Bo Zarts]

10. AFL-CIO here ..

Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) - retired

[popsdenver]

14. Hey ALPA retired..........

I distinctly recall that when the pilots went out on strike at Continental Airlines that the Mechanics Union and Flight attendants Union, in solidarity went out with the Pilots. Then the Mechanics Union at Continental went out on strike, and the Pilots and Flight attendants Unions went out with them!
THEN, the Flight attendants went out on strike against Continental (and CEO Lorenzo?) and the Pilots Union, and the Mechanics Union failed to honor The Flight Attendant's Strike........

I also recall during those turbulent times at Continental, that the pilot of Lorenzo's corporate 727? landed him and his corporate jet ON A FRIKKIN' TAXIWAY at Stapleton and nothing has ever done to the pilot.....I have landed at the ol' Stapleton, and there is NO ONE that could mistake the massive 26 Left and 26 Right CONCRETE runways for a tiny asphalt taxi way......

[Bo Zarts]

15. I certainly remember the 727 landing on the taxiway at DEN with Lorenzo on board ..

The 1983 pilot strike against CAL was a couple of years before my hire date at an ALPA carrier. However, when the strike happened, I was flying corporate jets out of IAH (Houston Intercontinental Airport). Living and working in Houston, I knew a lot of the striking CAL pilots. But I can't remember the timelines with respect to the other labor groups and their subsequent work actions against CAL.

However, I do remember some idiocracy on the part of a (very) few CAL ALPA pilots. They built pipe bombs with the idea of assassinating Frank Lorenzo, and the plot was intercepted by the FBI. They went to prison.

Lorenzo (TI, CAL, EAL, Peoples Xpress, NYAir, etc) was an industry pariah and, along with Steven Wolf (AA, CAL, NWA, USAirways, and maybe others) and Robert Crandall (AA and father of the B-Scale), Lorenzo ruined the airline industry. I missed Lorenzo and Crandall, but I had the extreme displeasure of working under Steven Wolf (an arrogant, elitist prick).

[popsdenver]

18. Lorenzo was the original

Corporate Raiding Prick..........
None of the Pilots, Mechanics, ticket people or Flight attendants got paid their last three months of work that they had done.
Lorenzo was able to convince some Judge, that HE should be able to keep all that Continental corporate had contributed to their employees retirement funds.......Having won that, THEN he tried to keep all the money that the employees had contributed to their retirement funds, and FINALLY that judge said enough is enough....NO

I knew a number of CAL employees, and his actions threw all of them into bankruptcy......I am sure that happened with most of the CAL employees...

AND, like the PATCO people, Reagan looked the other way.......

Of course, we have to quit calling it the Reagan Administration.....He was merely a puppet or pawn of the person who was truly running the Party for twelve years.....HWBUSH...........

Soon to be repeated with Cheney/Rumsfeld truly running the drug/alcohol brain addled WBush administration.

And then the Republican CABAL that were running the Trump first term, and the Republican 2025 group that is running Trump's second term........

[snot]

11. YES! C.f. Mike Gecan as recorded by Studs Terkel:

"There’s always a tendency to look for the most charismatic person, because that, in a way, solves your leadership problem – but only in the short term…. You can’t counter institutional power with good intentions, or charisma alone…. You have to build your own institutional power."

(Emphasis supplied.) From Terkel's book, Hope Dies Last (The New Press, 2003).

[BurnDoubt]

17. If "Rugged Indivdualism" is your thing,...

Then you fight alone.
Did you ever notice that organized and regulated groups called Armies are the go-to when nations have to defend themselves.
If you can't get-along... go alone.
"Hang together or hang alone."