Just a few more days and it will be Labor Day. For many, it is just another long weekend for hot dogs, hamburgers, boating, swimming and many other activities before cooler weather prevails.

But for Union members, true dedicated union members, it is more. It is a time to reflect on what it means to be a union member. My union, the United Steelworkers, and many other unions it means it is a shield, a voice, a force that ensures no worker left behind.

Unions fight for fair wages and benefits, safe working conditions, dignity and respect. That fight wasn’t just for ourselves but rather for all future union members. I’ve spent a lifetime supporting and fighting for the rights of union families.

I am now just a couple months shy of 79 years of age. I watch as everything union members fought for is being dismantled.

Yes, unions are under attack, an attack that is unprecedented in recent years. Collective bargaining rights stripped away, leaving workers powerless, wage negotiations blocked, leaving families struggling and protections that kept the union members safe are being gutted, putting lives at risk. This isn’t just policy, it is personal!

Some of this attack comes from within. Some union members take their protections for granted. Some so-called leaders support candidates that have never supported the union families of America and never will.

Gone are the days of true union friends like Paul Wellstone, Dick Gephardt, Tom Harkin, Howard Metzbaum, Ann Richards, Nick Joe Rahall, Ted Kennedy, Bill Bradley and many others. The few that are left, such as Sherrod Brown, are in the minority and are voted out of office by some union members.

Gone are the days of union leaders like Joe Powell, Bill Burga, Billy George and many others. Gone are the days of many Democratic leaders with a strong backbone, willing to stand up with union workers.

Yes, I’m an old man but I will not stand by and watch our rights be taken away without calling it out for what it is. It is nothing but a betrayal of our union families!

While you enjoy the long weekend known as Labor Day, take time to think about what your life will be like without the unions.

You see, many intelligent and educated people will tell you that the middle-class built America. I won’t argue that fact. I’ll just add that the Labor movement built the middle class!

Denny Longwell

New Martinsville