Unions. It's a topic that divides people just like religion, politics, or whether the toilet paper should hang from the front or back.
I'm not anti-Union. I know that unions have their place and for many years served to protect workers from horrible working conditions, paupers wages, and general mistreatment. Unions were the only reasons these issues improved. Unions protected the “every-man” because those in power would otherwise abuse them.
That was quite a while ago, however. Today, in the U.S., I see little need for unions. I think non-industrialized countries could stand to benefit quite a lot from the power of unions. However, where they fail is the same reasons the people that abused the workers of old failed - absolute power corrupts absolutlely.
Most unions today are greedy. Most unions today make decisions with blinders on. For example, when an organization states that it's $500K in the hole, how can a union expect to get a 6% raise? That's what my old highschool district teachers union did. The district told them that they were STARTING the school year budget half-a-mil in the hole, yet the teachers struck for 35 days insisting they be given money that wasn't there. Morons.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch also has a strike on their hands. They're something like 2 mil in the hole and yet the publishers and writers (I think) want some huge raise. Can these people not read P&L statements? If those raises eventually lead to the loss of jobs (due to lack of profitability) who wins? Morons.
Oh yeah, we just found out that in St. Louis, apparently the tormented and abused grocers union voted to strike. Good. I can hardly wait.
Do I cross picket lines? No. Those are representatives of families before they are union reps (in my mind) and I have the opinion that they truly believe they're doing right for their families. (Naive? Perhaps.) I won't risk offending the people that truly try to do the right thing.
My argument is this: Make people stand on their own, individual accomplishments. Work standards don't need to be enforced by unions (for the most part) any more. 90% of that is covered by OSHA.
Again, I'm not anti-Union. However, they've lost sight of what they were established for. Don't force employers to give raises just because “the Union says so”. Make those employees earn it. The rest of us have to. What does it accomplish anyway? A free-ride to the slacker workers and increased prices for ALL of us.