Greetings!
Just by reading through a few of the commenters posts from the thread links to TBP, I can't help but believe that few of these morons have any real experience with unions. I have been a member of a union, for years, as well as involved in management. Before I ever worked in a union, I used to have a much more positive view of unions. After my own actual experience in a large union--for years--as well as my close, personal knowledge of several friends that have worked as members of *different* kinds of unions--my opinion of unions has become definitely more cynical, and informed by real knowledge and real, first-hand experience. Unions are in many ways largely corrupt and inefficient, and while they provide *some* benefit to the employees in general, they also cause a great deal of professional harm, suffering, and lost reward and opportunities for many employees. In a nutshell, Unions mostly protect and facilitate mediocre, lazy, unmotivated employees that are content with doing just enough work professionally to "get by" and not get fired--while simultaneously actively and bureaucratically *harming* and limiting highly-motivated, genuinely hard-working employees that are ambitious. It is often a case organizationally and individually of taking two steps forward and three steps backwards. Certainly, in society, there are a few unions that seem to represent their members very well, and consistently do excellent work to improve the pay, conditions, and professional strength an influence of their members--such as the Police Unions, and the Teacher's Unions. However, even they possess some inherent, deeply disturbing dynamics and problems which negatively influence the productivity and efficiency of those professional industries.
Anyone that doesn't recognize these deeper realities concerning Unions is simply brainwashed, inexperienced, or in absolute denial.
So, I certainly have mixed feelings concerning "Unions".
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK