His father was a Culinary union member, and Rubio joined him on the picket lines when the union went on strike at the casino where he worked in 1984. “I was excited to be part of the cause and join forces with striking workers,” Rubio wrote. “I became a committed union activist.”
The strike went nowhere, and the family’s precarious finances were pressed. Mario Rubio returned to work. “I accused him of selling out and called him a scab,” Marco Rubio wrote. “It hurt him and I’m ashamed of it.”