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

[mike_c]

122. I can tell you that my union membership experiences have been 100% positive....

First, as a telcom worker in the Communications Workers of America, and for most of my academic career as a member of the California Faculty Assn. My union held the line during the last several years of budget cuts in California-- we made a few structural concessions in our last contract negotiation, but utterly prevailed against the take-backs management tried to impose under the guise that "no crisis should go unexploited."

And then there's this: I'm retiring in five or six years at 63 or 64, with an excellent lifetime pension that my partner will get to keep for her lifetime as well, full health benefits, etc. One of the last great defined benefit pension plans in America that LOTS of retiring California public employees enjoy. I started this thread a bit naive I suspect, because I cannot for the life of me understand why ALL American workers do not demand the same deal I have. And I have these benefits because my union has my back, and makes the largest university in the WORLD bargain in good faith. That's the power of collective bargaining. I cannot imagine why anyone would turn their back on that.