Daddy was a union man.
It was then called, I believe, the "International Laborers and Hod Carriers Union". My first memory of union activity was when Dad and others went on strike and picketed a job site for a couple weeks to win an over $2.00 hourly pay rate. As I have mentioned before, I thought they were called "picket lines" because the signs the strikers carried were stapled onto pick handles. Later, I found out the pick handles were sometimes used for other purposes.
The union struck for, and won, disposable paper cups on job sites because infectious hepatitis was spread by the shared tin cup employers furnished at the water can.
They struck for, and won, shoring for any trench over five feet deep after too many died trapped when deep excavations caved in and buried them.
I recall being taken to every Labor Day parade as a child. They were very well attended by the entire community and many brought picnic baskets to the park where the parade ended. Since in those days most were uninsured, four labor union men carried a sheet along the entire parade route, each holding a corner. By the end of the parade, the sheet was sagging from the cash tossed into it by generous folks. Depending on who needed help, the proceeds were distributed to "brothers" who had unpaid medical bill's due to injury or illness or, sometimes, to their widows and children. I was proud that my dad held a corner of that sheet every year.
During a summer when I was home from college and every man in our local was working, I worked "on permit" on highway and pipeline jobs. I was happy to pay "temp dues" to the local coffers in exchange for getting to bank union wages into my school account.
I wish we could restore a society in which the "Look For The Union Label" jingle could again be heard on TV.
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Air Line Pilots' Association.
AFL/CIO member.
When our cabin attendants went on strike one winter, we took hot chocolate and hot buttered rum 
to them on the picket line.
NALC 
Also with the UFCW 74 to 75.
