Why are so many Americans fearful/resentful of unions?

[mntleo2]

43. Not only did this happen, they got rewarded and promoted!

...Believe me this is the thing that was so agonizing for someone like me who believed a union should be democratic that pretended it was, but was not democratic at all. We had to bring a freaking LAWSUIT against her to force them to allow a vote by all workers as to whether or not to go out from under Civil Service. I wish I were making this up, but it happened and it was beyond absurd.

Then when we won the lawsuit, the union cheated (long story short, they used colored ballots for certain bargaining units and the gave the "wrong" colors to the ones they knew would vote for their nefarious deeds, thus ensuring they would "win&quot .

All I can tell you is that it taught me a great deal about the workings of unions since I saw it from the inside out and it was beyond ugly, it was heartbreaking. I agonized as to whether or not I was part of "undermining" the strength of unions or trying to make sure it stayed strong, but over 20 years down the road I know this was the right thing to do. Because unions are now much weaker and frankly I think if they had stayed the course, ALL workers would not be in the terrible place they are now.

My DIL used to work for Walmart. Fortunately for her this happened after she left, but during the holidays last year, some of her coworkers were forced to work up to 48 hours STRAIGHT, no breaks, no over time. Can you imagine undergoing being on your feet working your ass off continuously for 2 solid days and nights without stopping for a breath and then getting paid a wage careful enough to ensure you got no benefits or overtime? It was beyond disgusting! this was in the Covington store in WA State ~ and i am sure happening regularly around the nation.

While what Walmart did is blatantly against labor laws, did any authority do anything about it? Hell no! Because now Walmart has elected officials in their pockets and God forbid should those officials (or even the weakened NRLB) uphold laws that already exist on the books. 20 years ago the company would have been taken to the cleaners by the government even though they are non-union, but now there is nobody there even upholding existing law.

Hey a few of us tried to warn about this coming should they begin the corruption of those laws. We were vilified and told to shut up by management who were backed up by our own "allies". And yes I am sure no union would say THEY were responsible for the treatment workers are getting today, but IMO they definitely played a huge part and planted some major seed that are now weeds choking the labor movement.

Again I just wish unions would learn from it instead of justifying it.

Is there any discussion about this here in this thread? I doubt it because shhhhhhh! (whisper) We shouldn't talk about any mistakes the unions have made and we shouldn't try to fix them, just don those purple shirts and rah rah for the rights that were given away.

My (admittedly bitter) 2 cents

Cat