What’s wrong with our unions?

REGARDING "WORKING with a useless union," I couldn't agree more. I was in the exact same situation nearly a year and half ago. I worked three years for the country's "largest" grocery chain and barely made enough to get by, and I paid nearly the same in union dues.

While I had health insurance, the agony and misery were ripe everywhere. Management would randomly fire people for no reason (most would get their jobs back, of course, but it would usually take a month) to keep everyone on edge.

The union itself was very hard to deal with. I found that most incidents happened over the weekend at my store, so I would call my union rep, and of course, she would not be in at all. I would leave a message and have to wait until Monday, and most of the time, they didn't call back until later in the week. When I would finally talk to someone, they would tell me they would handle it. Half the time, I know they didn't, as the problem would continue.

About six months before I left, we had a new contract signing that screwed over our 20-year-or-more employees, forcing them to work until they were 64, or lose half of there retirement benefits. Most of these people started working there when they were 16!

The company loved this, of course, but what really shocked me was the union fully supported it! When I went in to vote on the contract, I had three different union employees tell me this was the best contract, since it would push starting wages up by another quarter an hour. That's good for new hires, but that doesn't help the people who have worked here longest. I later found out the union supported the contract because they had no money if a strike were to happen.

I used to like unions a lot, but ever since my dealings with them, I have found that the majority have sold out, becoming more and more like the very corporations they pledged to protect us workers from. I don't know what the solution is, but if all unions are like this, then our future is very grim.
Dustin G., from the Internet