With the amount of propaganda directed towards Labor and the divisive campaign afoot to banish unions from the workplace, it's good to remember that unions came about for a reason - those little things called compassion, fairness. quality of life and democracy. The reason many of you have jobs at fair and decent wages is because somebody thought if all of you spoke as one, it was better than if you were alone and on your own, begging for a living and taking whatever was offered.

Granted, not all businesses are unfair, not all businesses exploit workers, not all businesses subject employees to bad working conditions. But some do and some still do. And those are the ones for whom the Labor Movement exists.

One of the key figures of the modern American Labor Movement was Samuel Gompers whose American Federation of Labor worked to promote harmony among the different unions at the time and to establish the concept of collective bargaining in order to insure shorter working hours, higher wages and better working conditions. He was president of the AF of L from 1886-1894 and resumed from 1895 until his death in 1924.

Here is a clip of him speaking with regards to our war effort in 1918, where labor was heavily relied on to supply arms and supplies to the military.

So while we're watching the situation in Wisconsin, have a listen to the guy who got the modern labor movement rolling.