[lookout123]

Labrat - you are in IA city so you know the Quad Cities. that is where i am from. My dad spent his entire life working for IH then became Case IH. this is also the hometown of John Deere, so pretty much everyone i knew was STRONG union. (UAW for the most part) i remember the days of people getting beat down with baseball bats for attempting to cross strike lines, and getting death threats for driving toyotas to work. during college i worked in that plant and another one that were both strong union.

Unions are positive in a lot of different ways. i'm sure you've seen the bumper sticker about thanking your union rep if you enjoy weekends and all that jazz. having a union rep for the grievance system is really powerful in this type of setting.

unfortunately, i don't think there are too many people in the union leadership (outside of the local) who have the best interests of the people in mind. the most frequent reason to see a union rep from outside of your local is when they come through to remind you that if you don't vote for the Democrat in the upcoming election you are betraying all that the union stands for and maybe you should find a new line of work. republicans are the devil (which is true) democrats are the kind hearted souls looking out for blue collar union workers (not true).

living in IA and especially working for the University system the way you do, you get the benefits of the Union without being required to join. giving up better than 1% of your pay with no tangible benefit seems pretty foolish to me. federal guidelines mandate compliance with much of what the unions were originally established to negotiate for.