I feel like I spend a good portion of my day educating some of the other side. I love the activism from them, but reading some of their adventures sound like they just want to swing loudly as opposed to being actually heard. I’ve felt that way myself. I get that.

I had to learn back when. I asked questions of others. I spent tons of time reading and just digging around the internet or in the library. I learned how government worked here locally, who I could talk to for what. If I am going to invest in something, I want to make sure I have done all the research possible. Last but not least, I have an extensive “lived experience” going for me.

One topic that some of our very misinformed crowd is not understanding is unions. I left a link for one of them to explain the WHY of unions, as told by Washington State history. The account reads like nothing more than a “parroting” of other awful conservative accounts. I’ve challenged this person for some time now, with no results. I’m not even worried about that, honestly.

I had no idea about unions in the beginning. I wanted to learn. As Democrats, we work with unions, so I needed to know. 

I learned that unions are those people who bring you the 40 hour work week and who protect you as a worker (negotiating for a good contract, helping you with claims against your employer-examples)

I recommend reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. It shows history of how unions came to be. Check out the Industrial Workers of the World (they are known as “wobblies”)

So yes, unions do usually work with the Democratic Party. I’ve always thought that like me, they show up because the Democratic Party has the most amount of things in their platform we can agree on.

How have unions helped me over the years? They showed up to support us, be it through canvassing or phone banking. They volunteered hours to help us out in our office.

It is hard to get volunteers at times, especially during the summer months. I was usually the one staffing the office through the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. I was so very grateful for unions showing up and helping.

Unions are amazing organizers. They mobilize amazingly quick and I think that this is some of the why republicans have an issue. I think the current issue coming from republicans is that they need to be stopped because they are supporting all the “bad awful legislation” in the current session…in every section, actually.

So, imagine me sitting in Olympia in the Washington State Labor Council building for my first union day. Next to me is my partner, long time shipyard employee, part of the painters union. So imagine my shock when Larry Brown, who was president of the WSLC at the time-said words to the effect that he felt that the Democrats were sliding away from union values. My partner gasped, rather loudly. I looked around the room to see plenty of Democratic legislators and some press, and turned back around to smile at Larry.

If Larry was up there saying something along that line, I knew there was a problem. I prayed that all the correct people who needed to hear what was on his heart were listening to him.

I’m still praying on that, actually.

I hope this has helped some of you. I like lots of clicky links and history. Thanks for reading.