Ah unions. I am actually a member of one right this very second, and as such know both the ups and downs. The up side is that as I work my way through school at a Grocery store I get such things as health insurance, and the knowledge that I make more then the worker over there at target. Which allows people at my store to actually support themselves in some shape or form off of the job. Something that is far harder to do in non-unionised retail. The disadvantage is that they can be very inflexible to either market demands at the time, or in my case, acknowledging prior
experience with the same company (albeit in a non union store). I had the distinct pleasure of taking a pay cut upon moving to a larger city. Since then I have more then made up for it. The reason for this post: unions in my belief are generally good, the issue arises when they become so large and inflexible that they do not allow for fast changes based on market demand, or special circumstances for employees. This allows some people to work the system while failing to reward hardworking people that put in more effort than the average person. In the end I side with the unions because if it wasn’t for them it is far easier for management to push you harder for less, and at least my job is secure, something that is paramount given the current state of the economy.
