My earliest political memory was when my family joined a picket line supporting the teachers union’s fight over salary levels. I was only eight years old so I probably didn’t need much of an explanation for walking in a circle, chanting and carrying signs – it was just fun! But that early memory came back to me this past year when I saw tens of thousands turn out to protest the anti-union laws in Wisconsin and Ohio that go after the wages and benefits of teachers and other public workers.

Even though my parents weren’t union members, my family’s pro-union outlook might have been due to my grandfather. He worked for the New York City Subway system and was a member of the transit union in the 1950s and 60s. His union job made it possible for him to earn a decent middle-class living and send my mother to college at a time when opportunities were even more limited for African Americans than they are today.

My grandfather’s job, staffing a token booth and maintaining a subway station, wouldn’t be thought of as a middle-class job today. But during those peak years of union membership – when nearly a third of workers were union members – good jobs with real benefits and decent wages, included ones where people used their hands to do more than type on a keyboard. And they were good jobs because they were union jobs.

In the last 30 years, we’ve seen a race to the bottom in terms of job quality and wages. Companies have aggressively fought unionization drives (including faux-progressive ones like Starbucks and Whole Foods) and built a whole network of union-busting consulting firms, public relations companies that pump misinformation into the media, and policy experts that write anti-union bills. The notorious Koch Brothers have pumped millions into the anti-union fights of the last year (both to elect anti-union lawmakers and to convince the public through the media).

All working people need to understand why unions matter. The Koch Brothers and big corporations have their money and dirty tricks. But we have the numbers and relationships to change hearts and minds.

To help discuss the importance of unions and learn how to support the fight to repeal Ohio’s anti-union law, check out our new monthly house meeting guide here.