Most workers these days wander from low paying job to low paying job hand to mouth. Many do not have a pension or healthcare that is affordable.

I found the biggest bennefit to being in a union is the recall rights we all know the economy has ups and downs and if your not in a union many companies use it as an excuse to dump older workers replaceing them with younger and lower paid employees with less vacation time etc etc.

Our contract states that senority is the last laid off and the first called back.


Its well worth the fifty bucks a month I pay in union dues to have this security.

I make, not bragging cuz no one realy knowes me, 60 to 70 a year plus beneffits and a company funded pension.

Time and a half over eight and saturdays double on sundays and holidays.

I can recall when cashiers at a grocery store got overtime pay on saturdays. The country as a whole was far better off.

The ADA (age discrimination act)is legislation that does not require a union for representation.

Fifty bucks is difference between paying a bill and eating fresh produce.

Also, currently, there is little positive effect being made by unions. A large portion of their funds are designated for lobbying efforts, and used to back politicians who will side with a particular union issue.

A union's choice of candidate forces many union members to support politicians solely on that one perspective, while many of their other values do not agree with the choice.

Given the current economic conditions, capitalist cronyism, and right-to-work legislations, unions have lost their power hold. With the continueing efforts of privitization of state assests and public sector workers, there is a growing business devoted to arbitration.

It is my guess that as the economy recovers, and a younger workforce is employed, that intermittant use of arbitrators will be the most likely avenue for employee grievances.

There may even be a time when labor unions make a come-back, but at this point we are only beginning to see major changes in how business is done.

I grew up in the blue collar world where being a union member was the most prized of all worker benefits. All of my aging family members have had a comfortable retirement thanks in great part to unions. I have also been an activist against the right-to-work laws, but all the while I have been keeping up with news about unions, watching their effectiveness diminish,and leaning about future effects of current decision-makers on the economy and, in general looking at both sides of the issue.

I was once black-balled from the banking industry, and in my naivety I was unaware, until a very savvoy job consutant found out, that someone had informed the VP of the bank that I had been in contact with the teamsters about extending their union to non-bank officers.

So I understand your point of view, but at this point, I think we have to adjust and prepare for a different kind of employee grievance procedure becasue unions are no longer effective, nor do they promote free choice.

Seriously ADA? goodluck with that.

A company can lay off or fire anyone and its up to you the individual to prove it was discrimination.

I have a contract that says layoffs are done on a senority basis cut and dry.


If I have a choice I would never work non union.

In September I will have twenty years in the same company.