On this date in 1933, Hitler banned unions in Germany.

When we read anti-union rhetoric from various sources, which unfortunately includes some supposed Democrats when they talk about education, we should remember that tyrants do not like unions because they provide a way for ordinary workers to organize as a substantial economic and politic force.

Without unions employers of all sorts are often able to put downward pressure on wages and benefits.

Without unions, most unionized workers would not have 8 hour days, 5 day work weeks, paid holidays and vacations.

We used to have defined benefit pensions. Reagan went after unions and his administration also went after defined benefit pensions. 401Ks and IRAs are a gift to the Wall Street firms, since most people lack either the time or expertise to properly manage investments without getting ripped off or abused by what are now legal shenanigans on Wall Street.

Without unions we would find even more workers whose places of employment were unhealthy and/or unsafe.

We already have too much of a tilt economically and politically in favor of corporations and the wealthy. Those seeking to break public employee unions will not stop there - the remaining private sector unions are also on their target list.

Have some unions had some problems? Absolutely, but the level of corruption in unions is far less than the level of corruption we have seen in banking, finance, military contracting to name just 3 sectors of the economy.

The next time someone starts to bloviate about unions and how workers would be better off without them, just remember this date and ask sweetly:

"you mean like the workers in Nazi Germany after Hitler banned unions on May 2, 1933?"