Geez... I'm not very impressed by unions. It's an ambiguous relationship. On one hand, I'm fairly happy with my wages, but feel like it's the market driving them rather than the union. I feel like their incessant efforts come across as alot of whining, and efforts regarding grievances are protecting workers who should get the boot.

On the other hand, I do feel like someone should be advocating for workers... but I think the greatest crimes are some of these handouts happening at a level 3 layers above us -- things that are truly eating up the budget which leaves less for lower-level salaries. I don't think the Union is doing much about that other than reacting to news reports and pointing their finger saying "we should be getting that!" In reality, it would be better to lower tuition, taxes, and hospitalization costs, but everyone is gouging for their piece of the pie !

Essentially, places that desperately need unions, where workers are being horribly exploited, don't have them. Places that have unions, everything has become a bureaucratic morass with unions being as much a part of the problem as the solution.

Also, though I don't really want to be "management," there's something defeatist about saying I'm going to devote my life to fighting management.

Issue below - because of a mismatch between effective dates of raises, the union was forced to issue rebate checks (mine was a whopping $7). Now there's another SNAFU with the checks. All this could have been avoided if there weren't such animosity between the University and the Unions.
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Dear XXXXX health care member,

On August 15, 2007, XXXX mailed out the XX dues rebate checks. Unfortunately, the mail house misprinted the checks with the date of August 13, 2006. To rectify this problem, XXXX has contacted the bank and has authorized the clearance of these checks. We strongly recommend that you deposit your check rather than cashing it. If you wish to cash your check and if the date poses a problem, please ask the teller to call...