I think sometimes they can get very pushy in promoting workers' benefits, like a wage increase, to a point that a company would just be forced to close down because it couldn't grant the demands of the unions. It's just my opinion.

They seemed to have served their purpose, and are just about obsolete now. My wife is a Teamster, and all they seem to do is to take, not give back, and tell you who to vote for. Unions are good for independent workers, like barbers or small store owners or garage owners etc. who would like to get in on good group health coverage and other perks as the such. However, whenever I go to a union shop for delivery, all you ever hear is "It's not my job," guys complaining about having to do work, refusing to do one thing that's not in their specific work job description, then wonder why many plants are shutting down and moving to non-union shops. The picketers give me a kick, too. They want to prove that they are worthy of higher pay and benefits not by working harder and earning it, but by refusing to do the work assigned.

At one time unions were needed as most employers were of sweatshop mentality. Today unions just seem to promote laziness, why bust your hump If you are getting the same wage as the next guy who is busting his hump?

The biggest reason I am against Unions is as a group in 2002 and 2003 we decided to vote against raises so that we wouldn't lay anyone off. Then when the tough times passed we never made up for the missed raises. In my current location we have rules about pieces of equipment per operator. The number is artificially low, this would never fly in a non-union shop. The wages are artificially depressed because of this. I think there is the same amount of money involved in the shop as any other shop, but with 3x the employees there is less to go around. I am not sure how that helps me, except for the fact I am by no means overworked. In fact by being efficient I find there is way to much time to goof around and take longer breaks.

My experience with unions wasn't all that great. So I guess some of the bad aspects came to light when I was a surgery tech. I worked for a union hospital and it seemed like I got very little more than a headache for the dues that I paid to the union! It was almost impossible to fire someone, much less counsel or reprimand them without a union rep being present first and making it a pain the butt to deal with. I understand the unions are there to protect workers but often times people learn how to work the system and purposely use that for their benefit. People with bad work performance and such are nearly impossible to fire, especially if they have tenure. Probably the worst thing I saw was when the union went on strike, union employees HAD to picket and could nto work, which means they did not get paid..then (as predicted by a few fellow co-workers who had been through this before) the union worked out a raise increase deal with the hospital BUT the catch was about 1/3 of the staff was cut, so anyone on the bottom of the totem pole was let go and the lazy burnouts with tenure got a raise and continued doing nothing. That's the only union job I was ever privvy to seeing and being part of and I hope I am not part of another. Most companies now days have pretty decent human resource dept.s and want to protect their own butts so they are pretty good about most policies and procedures when it comes to dealing with and taking care of employees for the most part...given a choice I will take my chances without the union and save myself the fees.

unions make me weep

lets organize! Hoffa says so

The union leaders feel like they have to make major demands each time contract renewal comes around, even if things are going fairly well, because they have to justify their positions in the union. I've seen a lot of friends suffer from having to go on strike for months then come back to work with NO gains at all. I'm not sure how this is good for the worker. I, too, think unions were really necessary at one time. But that time has passed.