The death of Richard Trumka, the President of the AFL-CIO, brings up the question of what is the role of unions in this time. I have a unique perspective because I have been both a member of the AFL-CIO - the Musicians Union and a senior executive in a Fortune 100 company that never saw unionization. I was in the Musicians Union before Right to Work laws so in order to perform with a professional symphony orchestra in the 1970s you had to join the union. I saw the union as having both pluses and minuses. Collective bargaining could be a good thing; but union rules could stagnate innovation in a workplace. The Fortune 100 company I worked for was a highly ethical organization. It avoided being unionized by treating its employees very well. In the blizzard of 1978 in New England no one was allowed to drive on the roads for five days so no one could go to work. My company paid the hourly workers for those days at their regular wage as the right thing to do while General Electric didn't pay its unionized workers. So for a million dollars or so, the company could use that story for decades as why it wasn't necessary to unionize. Today, my position on unions is that in order to counter every penny possible going to the investors keeping wages and benefits low and continually created greater and greater income disparity, employees must own a substantial part of the company they work for. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is an interesting case. The musicians own the orchestra and manage it. There is no separation between management and employees. It is working very well for them. Income disparity in hollowing out the middle class and taking the consumer out of capitalism. It is time to turn the tables and assure every person lives a life of well-being.