I really enjoyed the union article by Mark Hendrickson [“The Economics and Politics of the Pro-Union Protecting the Right to Organize Act,” in the July 14–20, 2021, edition]. Yes, I sure can relate to the unions and how lousy most of them are. I feel that they did some good back in the early 1900s, but after that, they outlived their usefulness, to me it seems that their only agenda now is to make money for the union leaders. The union leaders seem to be like politicians—only interested in making money for themselves and caring little about members, or the public.
After graduating high school, I joined the Carpenters Union. Back then, the union had a lot of power. Houses being built by a non-union crew were dynamited, and the union “Goon” Squad was active and raided a job I was on, but we were all union so nothing happened. My stepfather was a longtime union member, and he did all the talking for us. But it sure scared me when several cars pulled up on the street and 15 to 20 men jumped out and quickly surrounded the house we were working on. My stepfather told me many nasty stories about the Goon Squad in the early days when he was a union member. He also mentioned the big Labor Day festivities held at a big amusement park near Cleveland (Euclid Beach), where the union had a big raffle. Top prize was a new car, and the value of the prizes went down after that. It seems that the wives of the union president and the wives of the heads of the locals were sure lucky every year. They won the new car and the high-end prizes, and when it got down to things like a toaster, one of the members won that. Oh, such honesty.
