How do you feel about unions?

[branders seine]

This is not flamebait. We Democrats seem pretty clearly divided on the issue of organized labor and the relationship between labor and the Democratic Party.

Historically, unions were a mainstay base of the Democratic Party and pro-labor planks filled the platform. That seems no longer to be true. How do you feel about it?

[Lucian]

1. I love unions and support them passionately.

[eleny]

2. Look for the Union Label

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO7VUklDlQw

:cry:

[IndianaJoe]

3. Unions had a lot to do with giving America a middle class.

Their decline dovetails precisely with the decline of the middle class.

[branders seine]

5. yup.

[KansDem]

4. My wife works at a local college and she belongs to the state NEA chapter...

One time several years ago there were two colleagues who wouldn't join the union. Everyone else in the department did except these two.

The union fought hard for its members and they enjoyed (somewhat) regular raises of not-too-shabby percentages. Even the two non-union colleagues received these benefits.

My wife and I used to kid each other about the scenario: two anti-union colleagues who didn't mind taking the benefits won by the union.

They're gone now, but I still shake my head when I think of their "No union for me but I'll take what it can get!!!" attitude.

on edit: and "yes," they were both Republicans!

[jp11]

6. Other:

I like and admire unions(love is too strong for me) and support them the vast majority of the time, they are the 'last' method for employees to gain leverage over or with employers but it doesn't mean they are perfect or that they are infallible.

Having said that I think it is a poor and misguided decision on the part of the Party to marginalize and even abandon unions when they are really the last 'hope' workers have at better conditions and fighting corporations, I might 'see' the Party's 'side' *IF* they were working for workers, but they aren't, they have left workers behind.

[NotThisTime]

18. +1

[Brickbat]

7. I've said it before, but I'll say it again -- union is our religion. We have a poster on our door

that says THIS HOUSE IS A UNION HOUSE.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. I love them but the more down the rabbit hole I go

into labor history the more I realize that they need to change some of the tactics, and in a way go back to the future... and go into right to work states and kick and do all that. And of course NOT count on "political allies."

[Stuart G]

9. The Union Saved my Job, More than Once..

I was in the teacher's union..I reported officials of the school that changed my grades..One student deserved a D..(barely passing) was given an A (superior)..
I worked throught the union, and the matter was settled there.

..Without a Union, I would have been fired for uncovering and disclosing to some other faculty members errors in judgment in changing that student's grade.
This had nothing to do with my job performance. Without protection and tenure, I would have been out of a job and would not have gotten another in that system.
As it was...I continued working, got a promotion and retired with almost 27 years in.

Don't give me that crap against unions. K and R

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Check out my sig pic

:)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

11. Proud offspring of a union organizer here.

Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers, who told me about the bad old days when you showed up on a picket line, got your head busted open by cops or goons, and dragged to jail. The only labor lawyer in town's wife posted bail for everybody for $100, and that was all the money in the world back in 1937.

Dad always said he knew when he was doing something right; some idiot would call him a Communist.

[Loki]

12. I come from a union family

both my dad and his brother were UAW AFL/CIO, and because of their hard work and dedication and sacrifice
millions of people enjoy the benefits of union families and union workers striking for better working conditions, a 40 hour work week and paid holiday and overtime, paid sick benefits with a retirement plan and helped not only union workers, but every worker. People have forgotten what working for a company was like before unions were allowed or organize for the worker, but slowly they have started to find out just what a corporation will do when it has complete control over the worker and his work environment. As a long time Democrat, I am ashamed of Mr. Clinton and the White House spokespeople who denigrate the American union worker and frankly, I won't be giving any money to the party in the upcoming election cycle, only to candidates that I feel truly represent the American worker.

[Demeter]

13. I belong to a union. I'm sticking with it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVx4VSVJEdc

[janx]

14. What unions? Which unions?

There are differences. And I disagree that pro-labor has disappeared from the Dem platform.

My question would be for those fortunate enough to be represented by a union: How are negotiations going? Is your union doing its best to represent you? If not, what are you doing to change that?

The only thing I question about unions is the degree to which union members might become complacent.

[William Z. Foster]

16. how support disappears

Not understanding what the Union is, and spreading misinformation about that while giving tepid lip service to "supporting " organized Labor - sometimes, and under certain conditions - is the way that support is disappearing.

The Union is - by definition - the workers, organized. You say "what is the Union doing for you?" as though the Union were not the workers, but something else - the leadership or something. "Fortunate enough to be represented by a Union?" We have to fight for it, we are not "fortunate" - as though management handed it to us - and we are not "represented " by the Union, we ARE the Union.

Questioning Unions on the basis of effectiveness or complacency or whatever is the exact way that pro-labor has disappeared from the Dem platform.

Would you qualify your support for democracy because sometimes it produces results you don't like? No. The worst results produced by democracy is better than no democracy. That is pro-democracy. Likewise, the worst results produced by the Union are better than no Union. That is pro-Labor.

[Luminous Animal]

20. Thank you for this....

"Would you qualify your support for democracy because sometimes it produces results you don't like? No. The worst results produced by democracy is better than no democracy. That is pro-democracy. Likewise, the worst results produced by the Union are better than no Union. That is pro-Labor."

[readmoreoften]

27. +1

[janx]

29. Please don't make assumptions,

I'm in my fifties and wondering whether the union members are not getting complacent. I don't think that's an out-of-line question.

I am NOT questioning unions on the basis of complacency--I am questioning the MEMBERS. You guys are paying into a pool, yeah? Is there not some corporate shit going on there? This is an honest question that should get me catapulted from DU in short order, but I have to get up tomorrow at 5:15 a.m., and I don't have any union, and I have to travel, round trip, 150 miles.

[William Z. Foster]

30. you made some statements

I expressed disagreement.

Have a safe trip.

[janx]

31. No logic. NONE

.

[William Z. Foster]

34. ok

Well, I wish you a safe trip.

[flyarm]

15. as a now Retired 33yr flight crew Union Member..you can thank the unions for your safety in the air

you fly!

Many safety regulations for the traveling public have been and are fought for, by Hard working Union Members who give a damn about your life and safety while you fly the Friendly skys ..

Fly... retired proud 33 yr Airline Union Member.

Wife of a former VP of a very Sucessful National Union

Daughter of a Union Father in the Operating Engineers.

[donco]

17. 35+ years a teamster. nt

[Ozymanithrax]

19. When the unions were strongest, the American Working man was at his strongest...

As they have weakened, protections for workers have faded.

This is not a coincidence.

[saltpoint]

21. Choice 3.

[femmocrat]

22. Proud teachers' union member here.

Our local president worked her butt off to get me reinstated after I was furloughed. Our officers are so courageous to face our moronic school board. They have been treated like crap, given bad assignments, etc., for their efforts-- which is illegal. I would do anything our local asks of me.

We are currently in contract negotiations. Please pray for our negotiating team! Thank you! They are putting in incredibly long hours on top of their teaching and family responsibilities to hammer out a new contract for all of us.

[Jennicut]

23. My husband is in IBEW. Without them, I don't know how many workers at Utilities would be

that protected. I think I will side with Unions.

[pipoman]

24. I like'em

just know many have been forced into obsolescence by trade agreements and greedy companies sending formerly union jobs to slave labor nations...

[Stinky The Clown]

25. Unions allowed my parents to raise my brother and me in fine middle class style.

[ThomThom]

26. I would also like to see more worker owned business

workers need more say in the work place
management most of the time is clueless about how to get the job done
supervision in the work place is a joke, in many instances
there are no ethics anymore
corporations tend to remove responsibility and now very few people really cares about the quality of the job done

[caledesi]

28. Dems divided on unions????? very few perhaps....nt

[glen123098]

32. I'll support a union long before I support a corporation

That said they aren't perfect.

[Blue_In_AK]

33. Thanks to my husband's union,

MEBA (Marine Engineers Benefit Association), he and I can live a comfortable retired life. I'm grateful to them every single day.

[drlindaphd]

35. I support unions

My husband is a retired teacher. He taught in Philadelphia for 39 years. We were there when the AFT organized the PFT. We lived through those days and I clearly recall the struggles and the victory when we finally won the right to collective bargaining.

My daughter spent time on the picket line when she was 2 years old. Now she is a teacher in Willingboro, NJ. I am proud to say she is Chief Negotiator for the WEA, her NEA chapter. Last year she negotiated her first contract and she is in the process of negotiating another. Her group does not go out on strike. They bargain in good faith and have worked without a contract before. Now with Gov, Christie things are really tough. Her colleagues want her to run for president of her chapter. She has two young children, 5 and 9, and she really cannot do that at this time, but maybe in the future when her kids are older.

I am very proud of both my daughter and my husband. I remember what things were like before the AFT and they were bad. Teachers are, in my opinion, getting a really bad rap right now. They hold the future of our country in their hands.

A colleague of my husband's was in Germany several years ago. She was standing in line waiting to be seated in a restaurant and happened to tell some people around her that she was a teacher. All of the people around her insisted she go to the front of the line and be seated immediately. They told her that teachers deserved special treatment and respect because of their value to society. Can you imagine that happening here?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

36. Some are good, some are bad and some are just dumb like any other type of group

Some of the most virulent modern racism I have ever seen has come out of unions, including one episode in the 90's where they walked off the job after the company stopped taking union apprentices after it was exposed that the union rejected all minority applicants and claimed not a single woman had ever applied. The union didn't deny it and said they were "fighting for jobs for their sons" and "someone has to stand up for the white working man".

I also know a company where the union seems to have found a cause in trying to stop the company from re-hiring former employees who previously took a buy-out after they were outsourced and the outsource flopped. One would think the union would be delighted but instead seems intent on seeing to it that not a single one of these people return.

[mike_c]

37. my union has my back, utterly....

I have a decent salary and reasonable work conditions because of my union. All one has to do is follow one contract bargaining session to get a feel for what "management" would do if the union were not standing up to it. My union ROCKS.

Solidarity!