What do you think about Unions?

They are one of the sole reasons we have a middle class. Yeah, there is some bad in unions, but there is alot of good. Unions gave us an 8 hour work day, and the weekend along with raising the standard of living for non-union workers who always slightly undercut union work, the point being the union sets the benchmark. Theyve also built every major city in this country as well as infrastructure. There are bad unions that reward seniority over performance and sometimes ridiculous job protection measures. That mostly involves schoolteachers, police/firemaen, and autoworkers. The union building trades have no seniority or job protection, it comes down to how you perform. Another great benefit that they provide is their apprenticeship training programs. They charge nothing for their schooling.(No government assistance either) This gives people who dont want to or cant afford the trap which is a college education and provides them with a marketable trade/skill that can support a decent living.

At least to me.

Their are more govt. unions workers than private sector union workers:

"While the public sector continues to account for the largest share of unionized workers overall, the study found an unexpected uptick in private-sector unionization in all three geographical jurisdictions. Although the increase in the state and nation was quite a bit smaller, Los Angeles' private-sector unionization rate increased from 8.8 percent in 2007 to 10 percent today."

"Although state and local data on benefits are not available for 2008, nationwide, 90 percent of union members had access to retirement benefits, compared with only 61 percent of nonunion workers; 91 percent of union members had access to medical coverage, compared with 70 percent of nonunion workers; and 57 percent of union members had employer-provided paid-leave benefits, compared with only 38 percent of nonunion workers."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-08/uoc--uum08280...

It is a double edged sword. When I was not in a union I thought they were bad all the way around. When I became a union member I saw things very differently. I am not happy with my local leadership or national leadership as they are Democratic supporters.

I see all the bad things talked about here in our union, they are very cozy with management. Management like to refer to us as a country club, but they try to micromanage everything we do as if we were in kindergarten, it is really a battle and causes problems, there is nothing worse to me than a micromanager.

I wish I didn't need a union but, my pay would be close half of what it is and probably would be paying much more out of my pocket for benefits

As a Union Steward for The IBOT I was very disappointed in my union and filed a petition on behalf of my fellow union workers with the NLRB here in Chicago to decertify (kick out the union) and start our own union.

I belonged to a 250 member department of skilled maintenance workers in a listed NYSE company. Long story short, the company spent more money opposing us than the union did. Us workers spent $10,000. It was a Republican administration (Regan) and the NLRB ruled in favor of the Union and Company and denied our petition. I and another union steward was fired by the union (not our company job). Our attorney said they had the right to protect themselves even though we were elected by the membership.

Our very capable attorney afterward told me, "Rich, if you would of prevailed in your petition, in a couple years, your union would be no different than the Teamsters." I thought differently then, but now, that I'm older, and hopefully wiser, he was right.

People are too shallow and corrupt. If you doubt what I am saying, just look at our elected leaders.

Like any organizations when they grow large they become corrupt. This is just natural. Though government unions should be reviewed.

but most of them here in the US are not. I support a union that looks out for the betterment of their members. Working conditions, wages, etc. These are legitimate issues unions are good to equalize the playing field with companies. The problem starts when the government gets ivolved and shifts the balance of power to yhe unions as we have here. Another problem with unions is they don't police the actions of their members. So many times when I worked at Ford members would be caught stealing equipment, clocking in and going home, and other things most of us would be fire or jailed. But the union would protect them. Nobody ever lost a job and received all back pay for time they were off. Unions today also encourage doing minimal work. In fact when you work too hard is when you see what union policing its members is all about. My God we can't let you make the rest of us look bad!

Here's Detroit News Exposing the UAW
Highly Educational

www.clickondetroit.com/video/15908257/index.html

Wierd !

~Mikael / Peace, love, Light and unity ~

A BETTER QUESTION IS WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT UNIONS?

1) AFL-CIA?? Crushing Latin American Unions
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/8425/AFL-CIAA.HTM

2)http://lecolonelchabert.blogspot.com/2005/11/afl-cia-in-haiti.html

3)http://www.springerlink.com/content/m2015r4v26044h18/

4)The CIA in Australia
http://www.serendipity.li/cia/cia_oz/cia_oz4.htm

Unfortunately, Margeret Thatcher's "solution" to the union problem was to use the same illegal bully-boy thug tactics that the unions had used against employers.

By the time that Thatcher had beaten the miners, British industry was already dead. Our "economic recovery" was due, in large measure, to the rebirth of London as a financial services capital.

The industrial north of England never recovered. To this day, taxpayers in the south continue to subsidise the north, where the welfare dependency culture has replaced the work ethic.

http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/

http://lpuk.blogspot.com/

http://northwestlibertarians.blogspot.com/

In my opinion, unions seem to be primarily about control/power and greed. They served a very important purpose in the past, but now they are very damaging.

Some states do not give workers an individual choice. In those states, if the majority of workers vote for the union you are forced to join. This sort of thing is definitely not right.

Here is a good website: http://www.nrtw.org/ and here is their map of "right to work" states: http://www.nrtw.org/rtws.htm

Unions have every right to exist and individuals should always have the right to choose whether they individually will be part of it. Government should stay out of it.

In my opinion it is part of the freedom of association to form or join a union. Bad (and against the freedom of association) is a mandatory membership in a union.

As a matter of fact the single employee has no real bargaining power (as long there is no shortage in the workforce), so it's advisable for him to join a union. A good working union may even make state intervention unnecessary, since the association of the employees will care not only for the loans but for the working conditions too. Of course like any organization a union is prone for corruption and cronism. So it's important it is allowed to form competing unions.

We had an interesting rail strike in 2007 when the small maverick trade union of train drivers demanded a seperate wage contract for their members because they considered themselves (with good reasons) not well represented in the contract negotiated by the two larger trade unions. The GDL (actually the oldest still existing German trade union) came under immense pressure to fall back in line not only by the state owned railway company (that has still nearly a monopoly on the railway system), but by the government, large parts of the media and the two other trade unions . The company threatend the trade unions with huge compensation claims and tried to stop the strike via the law courts. But the GDL kept its course stubbornly, won many new members and surprisingly the sympathy of the public in spite of the disruption caused by the strike. In the end the railway company had to back down and the trade union got most of the demands accepted in the contract. In a delicate epilog the chairman of one of the two large trade unions who had severely opposed the GDL's claims as being "unsolidary with the rest of the work force" a year later became member of the board of directors of the company without any expertise as a businessman.

Fellowship of the White Rose

are the $hit

My husband works for the railroad, and I am glad he is union b/c work has slowed down so much that we would be homeless if it weren't for the negotiated pay. I guess it just depends if the union is working for you or out to screw everyone over. His union is a good union and they have a good rep.