by Barnett Weinstein
I had the opportunity to spend some time out east at the newly refurbished and beautiful Gurneys Inn resort the weekend of November 6-8th. The purpose of my visit was to learn more about the history, present state, and future of our unions in our country. While there, I got to meet other school union members from across Nassau County.
The takeaway message from the workshops is that for over 100 years labor unions have fought countless battles, from both private and public entities, to provide us with the working conditions and benefits that most of us enjoy today. But many of us are losing what we have gained.
As you all are aware, unions today are under attack again from public and private entities. What I learned is that the future of unions looks bleak if we don’t stand up together and fight. Our benefits, and most importantly our jobs are at stake if we don’t recognize that the union enemies are here on and they are mobilized.
We have to do more to fight back and keep unions alive. Some of these things that we can do are take a more active role in union activities, attend rallies, and be more vocal about the positive things unions have done for us. But the most powerful thing we as union members can do is simply exercise our voting muscle. Our votes will send the message to those we elect that we are still a powerful force and we want to keep our hard fought rights and benefits. But if we don’t step up, these things we cherish and sometimes take for granted will be legislated away.