why are you not in a labor union...?

[Fumesucker]

92. Retired last year, never been in a union

My perspective as someone who lives in a region where union membership is rare is that the only way to get in a union is to be related to someone already in the union.

I certainly support the idea of unions but frankly it seems to me to be another layer of politics, if you're good at retail politics you'll do well in the union and probably do pretty well without the union. If you're not good at office politics there really isn't much help for you anyway.

A family member of mine is in a theatrical union, loves the pay and benefits but hates the political jockeying for position to get the plum jobs and keep working consistently. Unfortunately that type of work is almost always done on a tight schedule and usually involves 12 or even more hours per day of fairly physical work, difficult for someone approaching sixty even if they are very good at their job.

These days he's mostly self employed, even though he makes only a fraction of the hourly union rate he works a lot more often, has a lot more control over his hours and feels much less stressed overall.