Unions: I need an intellegent discussion on their validity

[vsp]

Bad: A previous employer of mine had both union and non-union positions available. When I took an oh-hell-I-got-my-degree-NOW-what job doing data entry there, it was a union position, so I got to start paying dues to the United Electrical Workers. What my job had to do with electrical work beyond my using an electric-powered dumb terminal, I'll never know, but that was a requirement for employment.

During my stay in that job, we went on strike once, losing three days' pay and gaining a moderate hourly raise. (Short version: the company had been sold, the union wanted massive payback for cuts the old owner had made, the new owner said "you want WHAT?", and the union VP came down and said "You people are nuts, I'd settle.") That raise and my crew-chief position were lost when the night shift was dissolved; moving to day shift left me at a net loss after losing shift differential and crew-chief pay, with not a finger lifted by the union to even talk to us about it. Never even got a membership card.

I moved to a non-union position with the same company. A month later, I started getting the union newspaper in the mail, unasked-for, which I'd never gotten while I was an actual member. It kept coming for years.

Good: Wal-Mart considers unions to be horrific, satanic and awful, so there must be something good about them.