[asinclair]

I remember the 80s. Where I worked (Fortune 50 corp) the union organizers said that forced union membership (and dues) was a "requirement". Their argument: collective bargaining affects all workers, so the workers not paying dues were "goldbricking" on the back of the workers that did.

The factory was unionized. Engineering was not. When asked, the union reps didn't have an answer how our department was riding on the coattails of the union, as the salaries were not affected when new contracts were negotiated.

The results: Admin, Engineering, and Sales voted "no".

The particular outpost of the corp was in Illinois, specifically the Chicago area.

[Alberta's Child]

One of the things I’ve noticed in recent years is that a certain type of private-sector labor union is the absolute worst type of all: those that allow their retirees to vote for their leaders. The end result of this idiocy is that these unions often end up screwing existing WORKERS on behalf of the RETIREES.

That’s why these unions are so tied to politicians. A steelworkers union, for example, doesn’t give a damn about the 100,000+ active workers it represents. It cares more about the 800,000+ retirees among its members — many of whom haven’t worked in years.