[last lines]
Smokey James: [voiceover echoing earlier line] They pit the lifers against the new boy and the young against the old. The black against the white. Everything they do is to keep us in our place.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blue-collar-1978
Retired union member, and lifelong supporter here. Union bennies paid for my medical care as a kid, and a union pension allowed me to get out of a tough line of work while I could still walk away. It’s enough that when combined with savings I can last until Social Security kicks in later this year.
Two things we can’t take for granted with the politicians; the way of life that unions helped enshrine, and the Social Security we paid for. The establishment that seems to want Forever Wars also seems to want us at their mercy.
