Driving down memory lane with the Teamsters We enjoyed watching Hoffa again and found it struck a resonant chord this time. This fairytale sent us back to our (in all modesty, also somewhat heroic) involvement with the Teamsters during our college years: Common elements of violence on and off a picket line, less than honest dealings and an overwhelming impression that the working stiff usually pays dearly in these struggles.

Regretfully, unions have fallen out of favor these days (not that they didn't do much to deserve that) and our embrace of capitalism now means tax dollars for bonuses to executives of failed businesses. But unions played a significant role in the election of Obama and now would be a good time to remember the great many other good things they've done.

Nicholson's Hoffa has a line in the movie about how they put the working man in the middle class and that he is going to stay there: Would that the unions could make it so. Let's reconsider "card check"


  ¶ 1/04/2009 09:30:00 PM