I have an ... uncomfortable personal history, with unions.
Back when I was a Callow Youth (tm), I got my first real job (cashier/bagger at a grocery store). A week later I'm wondering where the heck my paycheck got to. When I ask my supervisor, he tells me I hadn't filled out all the required paperwork yet.
What was I missing? The union membership application. I hadn't cared, I didn't -want- to be in the union, this was only a temp job while I finished high school and applied to colleges. It wasn't like I intended to make a career at this shop. But their policy was firm: no union, no pay.
So I signed. Which required me to pay a union "initiation fee" (ie, scam) in addition to the regular dues that members pay. And since the initiation scam - er, fee - was more than I was going to earn in six months of working there, I arranged for it to be paid off as a series of small deductions instead of all at once.
Three months later, the store went under. That branch of the chain closed. The union promised all members that they would find them jobs at other branches.
Note that I said "them", not "us". Since I hadn't paid off the initiation scam^h^h^h^hfee, I wasn't a member, so I wasn't eligible for assistance.
Which left me out on my butt, quite a bit poorer than I'd hoped to be, unable to find a job since the local shops had already glutted themselves on the summer crowds getting out of school and I hadn't expected to need to be -part- of that crowd.
And nursing a rather serious grudge against unions in general.
I find the idea of the Union to be good and valuable and necessary for the well-being of industry.
I find the current implementation of the Union to be, like any other large and powerful organization, hopelessly corrupt and run by malicious bureaucrats rather than people who are actually interested in helping individual workers.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Back when I was a Callow Youth (tm), I got my first real job (cashier/bagger at a grocery store). A week later I'm wondering where the heck my paycheck got to. When I ask my supervisor, he tells me I hadn't filled out all the required paperwork yet.
What was I missing? The union membership application. I hadn't cared, I didn't -want- to be in the union, this was only a temp job while I finished high school and applied to colleges. It wasn't like I intended to make a career at this shop. But their policy was firm: no union, no pay.
So I signed. Which required me to pay a union "initiation fee" (ie, scam) in addition to the regular dues that members pay. And since the initiation scam - er, fee - was more than I was going to earn in six months of working there, I arranged for it to be paid off as a series of small deductions instead of all at once.
Three months later, the store went under. That branch of the chain closed. The union promised all members that they would find them jobs at other branches.
Note that I said "them", not "us". Since I hadn't paid off the initiation scam^h^h^h^hfee, I wasn't a member, so I wasn't eligible for assistance.
Which left me out on my butt, quite a bit poorer than I'd hoped to be, unable to find a job since the local shops had already glutted themselves on the summer crowds getting out of school and I hadn't expected to need to be -part- of that crowd.
And nursing a rather serious grudge against unions in general.
I find the idea of the Union to be good and valuable and necessary for the well-being of industry.
I find the current implementation of the Union to be, like any other large and powerful organization, hopelessly corrupt and run by malicious bureaucrats rather than people who are actually interested in helping individual workers.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.