I come from a family that has always understood the danger of unions. For one thing, they preferred to work for themselves. I think our family motto was, "why work 9 to 5 for someone else, when you can work 24/7 for yourself. However, their predictions of how the unions would go rogue have come true.
I only had one serious run in with a union and it was at the tender age of sixteen. Since I considered high school a complete bore (it was), I would have done anything to get out. They had some kind of work-release program (sounds like prison, doesn't it?) and I jumped at the chance. I landed a position with the old Montgomery Wards on University Ave. in St. Paul, MN. They stuck me in the accounting department, probably due to my being math challenged. Things seem to work that way, doncha know.
The department was unionized and in short order the shop steward appeared with my enrollment papers. I politely told her I wasn't interested in joining the union. What followed was continual cajoling that progressed into outright harassment. They tried to convince me of all the reasons I needed the "protection" of the union. Tony (Soprano) would have been proud. I remember once explaining patiently that Wards hired me for x amount of dollars to do a job. I was happy with x amount of dollars. If I became unhappy with x amount of dollars, I would ask for a raise. If they didn't give me a raise, I had two choices; continue to work for the original x amount of dollars, or find another job which paid x amount of dollars plus y amount of dollars. Seemed pretty simple to me.
That poor woman was completely befuddled by my answer. Folks - I was sixteen years old and had a better grasp of the world than this "adult" had. After about 6 months of this they finally left me alone. This incident happened almost 50 years ago, but it left behind a brain cell completely devoted to distrust, annoyance, and in some cases, outright hatred of unions.
From Doug Ross:
SEIU invested tens of millions on Obama and DemCare in order to replenish its woefully underfunded pensions - on your dime.
