Democrat's Apathy For Unions Is Suicide

[alarimer]

115. For the first time in my life, I will be an actual union member at my new job.

I have always been a state employee (well, except when I was federal, but anyway) and all of my permanent jobs have been in southern states, where even to speak of unions was a severe no-no. There was always an association (a lobbying group, essentially) that did work to put state employees on the legislative agenda, but no union rep.

Now I am moving to Maryland and (for now at least, given that the governor is GOP, although I do not know how bad he is yet), where there is a union, even for us white-collar types.

I think the primary purpose of a union is collective bargaining for whatever level of job you are talking about, because people have a much stronger negotiating position in groups than alone.

Most of the people who abhor unions have benefited greatly from them: 40-hour workweeks (yeah, I know, what are those?), health insurance benefits, vacation, etc. They are essentially free riders on the system, which will eventually break down if not enough people are members of unions.

The people who would benefit the most are the people at the bottom end, but the bosses make it extremely difficult.