[oldtech]

Never belonged to a union; had divided feelings about them. I felt if you had a good employer, a union was largely unnecessary. Of course, that was not always the case.

[wjcsux]

“ Never belonged to a union; had divided feelings about them. I felt if you had a good employer, a union was largely unnecessary. Of course, that was not always the case.”
It’s my understanding that UAW membership was forced on Ford Motor Company in the late 40’s by court order. Henry Ford hated unions and made sure that his employees were well paid to keep them from joining the union.

[gibsonguy]

The Unions are the biggest source of money for the rats. That is what is behind this.

[econjack]

I view the AMA, ABA, AAUP and other professional associations as unions, so I have belonged to one. My complaint was that, if you are a better-than-average worker, you are being constrained by the average worker. Unions stratify workers into categories and negotiate pay for those categories. They also control how you move between categories. Even worse, older workers may actually be less productive than younger workers, but seniority protects their pay.

My experience is that less productive workers favor unions because it bolsters and protects their pay while better-than-average workers don't favor them because union work rules impedes their advancement in position and pay.

[PrincessB]

I think for certain skilled labor (welders, electricians, construction) where the union provides training and can evaluate safety measures and basic standards of a quality process/product there is value in the union.

For a lot of other jobs, no. At some point a high performing employee is penalized and management gets hamstrung. There isn’t flexibility to change work duties to help a good employee get ahead. Certain “promotions” are based on seniority and not skill. Raises are across the board and there is little wiggle room for merit or extra raises. I have gotten “other duties as assigned” that I could leverage for promotions and have outperformed the general salary increase multiple times. No way I’d have that in a union shop.