I support unionized work but my nemesises who run business do not. I'm not going to name names or point fingers but we all know who I am talking about. With national heath care in a shambles, anyone who has never worked for the US has a far worse chance of obtaining benefits through a private employer than any other time in national history. Where the retiree isn't even sure whether his company will pull some BS move just in order to dump pension obligations and not to have some sort of advocacy board in place in order to make sure these kinds of criminal actions aren't perpetrated against the average person is cause for concern. Why do you think I'm leaving Florida. This state can suck a big orange for all I care because they sure don't care about the people that work here. Xtras in comments.

Overall, bad. Back when, good. They helped workers organize and negotiate a living wage for their work. After that unless they were to negotiate some sort of profit sharing I don't find them to useful. I feel like most of the time the union is helping the little guys, whoever they are and not me.

like most things they can be good or bad.

While I appreciated the support I received from my union for health care and benefits, the raises were minimal (but regular--every 6 months, nothing more than a 15-cent per hour increase). Additionally, the extra fees required to keep the unions in business supporting the employees can be somewhat expensive (all in all I think it was a total of $600 over the course of a year). Did the benefits outweigh the costs? I didn't stick in that job long enough to accurately consider it.

See my opinions/commentary on unions here - http://www.orangefrogproductions.com/ofp2o_auth_ops_tounionornottounion.shtml

At a point in history they were very important but now they are causing alot of the problems we are seeing today. For the instance the auto industry,I have a brother that worked for chrystler for 20 years and he spent at least 1/3 of his working hours doing nothing at all whether it be a model change or waiting to go out on another assignment, all the while getting full pay. This is killing america, non productive people in the name of union rights.Keep in mind I am not anti union but these kind of collective rights are way over the top.

I'm a manager who's worked in union shops with 3 different unions. I only worked one place where I felt the union was usefull. Unions are only beneficial in protecting workers from bosses who "have it in" for certain employees. These types are few, however, since it's counterproductive. Unions also add a layer of expense that other businesses may not have, reduceing conpetition. The unions I worked with paid lip service to their members, promised them the moon, then sucked dues and assessments from them, while they blamed management.

I am very much in favour of unions - but I think you need to understand that there are different roles for unions in different professions, and, as I see it, we have a different perspective of them in UK than you have in USA. My union promotes professionalism in the workplace - and campaigns for improvements in working conditions purely in order to increase professionalism. For example, as teachers, we were required to spend vast amounts of time photocopying, chasing paper, compiling reports (by compiling, I mean physically organising 15 sheets of paper per child into alphabetical order, then stapling front and back covers) These are tasks which could be more easily done by admin staff, leaving teachers free to prepare, plan and assess. The unions fought for the removal of these admin tasks - in order to allow us to prepare, plan and assess. Result: teachers are now involved more in the planning of lessons, preparing of materials and assessing work - we still work the same number of hours, but out time is spent focussing on the children, not the paper. The union also has a beneficial role in ensuring staff welfare, or representing colleagues. A classic example is with the issue of abuse from students - sadly some students do abuse staff at school, and we are largely powerless to do anything about it - but, with union support, we can insist that school mamangement take action - whether that action is removing the student from school (in extreme situations only) or reparing risk assessments and providing additional support for particular students. There are unions whose members tend to follow a more radical path, but the one I am involved in has a much more conciliatory approach - all in all I am very happy with their role.

Good or Bad In Management you would avoid the trouble causers. As Staff you have support of Union when facing work related issues.

I am a union carpenter and it has put food on the table for my family and a roof over their heads. so are union good yes they are i would change any thing.

I think it's stupid to see some idiot holding a SLOW sign getting paid like $20 an hour or however much.

well they can be good or bad. if the world were fair, we wouldnt need them , but its not.

Good. But only if they involve a penis.