My favorite worker

 This Labor Day weekend I want to take a break from politics, well not entirely, to honor my favorite worker, and all who labor for this country day in and day out regardless of their job.

My father, an Italian immigrant, will always be my favorite laborer. I honor him every day, but especially on this Labor Day weekend.

Dad arrived here from Italy at the age of 17, and spent the next 48 years in the Lorain National Tube Steel plant.  He wanted to go to school then, but his Dad, my Grampa Pete, said, "oh no, you and I have to work in the steel mill, so your seven brothers and sisters can go to school".

Well, Dad did as he was told, and without any education himself, he got to see his three children, become college educated. When I questioned him on why he did this, he just replied, "back then you did whatever your parents told you to do". He  said he was the oldest, and it's what he had to do for his family back then.

On work ethics, my Dad was my greatest role model. He had so many quips, but my two favorites were,  "hard work won't kill you, but worrying about it might".  Another favorite was, "this country is built on the guy that puts two sandwiches in his brown bag, and goes to work every day to take care of his family". He spoke broken English, but I sure listened to everything he said.

And Dad led by example by not even knowing it.  At sixteen years old, I remember on a cold winter morning, during a wild snow storm, I was awakened by a noise coming from the garage, and walked to the stairway landing to look outside. It was an unbelievable storm, and I jumped for joy as the first words I spoke were, "hot dog, no school today, and I'm going back to bed".

The noise I heard, but didn't see, was Dad shoveling at least a little of the mountain of  snow in our backyard so he could get to the garage and his trusty 1940 Ford. Then I heard him rev the motor to very high RPM's. He put the gear in reverse, popped the clutch, and flew backwards down our driveway.

He plowed through a large snow pile at the end of the driveway and went right through it, as I watched this. Dad and his '40 Ford slid backwards, before he got the car under control, and off he went to his steel mills. Of course my sisters and I stayed in our warm house all day, enjoying the snow day off from school.

When Dad got home later from work I asked in amazement, "Dad, what were you thinking this morning? It never stopped snowing all day...it's a mess out there". He just responded, "hey, I get hourly wages...no work...no pay". He gave Mom a peck on the cheek, asked what was for dinner, and walked away like it was no big deal.

It was a lesson in work ethics and family devotion that I will never forget. He taught me a lesson without even knowing it. Today at 77 that lesson still stays with me in my heart.

Years later, after the military, and in college night school, I was promoted into management. Well, as you may guess, my Dad, being a strong Union member, the Union-Management arguments started with a bang. We would verbally "get into it", but because of my deep love and respect for Dad they were just loud spoken words.

He would loudly speak that the steel worker's union protected his job. I argued that when he came from Italy a union was necessary, but with the "Hoffa" corruption the unions don't care about anything but your dues. The argument always ended with Mom saying, "OK, enough you two...c'mon dinner's ready". He always got the last word....."Oh, you're just a company man now".  The truth is, Dad was proud of me, and we both looked forward to my Sunday invites for Mom's great spaghetti dinners, watch the Browns' game with Dad and continue our labor-management disagreements.

Dad passed in 1974, and today my sisters say, "Dad is spinning in his grave cause his son is a Republican and are strong anti-union". Of course I always stand my ground and argue that with unemployment at 8.3% there are no jobs for the union leaders to protect, but you still have to give them monthly dues. I would say, "I'm not against union workers...I'm against workers union leaders"

I will further argue that why do top union officials bring in high six-figure salaries when jobs are being lost every day?  This is evidenced by the nearly 400,000 first time unemployment claims every week.  My further arguement is if the union leaders really cared for their workers instead of their dues they would welcome their workers going to a non-union environment to survive, grow, and take care of their families.

Statistics show a very large amount of union dues money is donated to President Obama for his campaigning and for the growth of public sector jobs and unions. He helps unions by interveening into union-management negotiations. This is evidenced by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is very left-leaning.

There will always be labor-managment disagreements, so let's all hope and pray that what comes out of these disagreements there will be some "meeting in the middle" for a more productive working country.

Starting with my Dad, I would like to praise all the working men and women in this great country who daily go out in this troubling workforce to help better themselves, their families, and our great country. God Bless them all.

And that's Politics with Pete for today....God Bless the U.S.A., and our troops