Sorry, Gargoyle, my songs were anti-administration--but I certainly sympathize with Barbara's plight. And I know many working people who hate unions, even ones of which they are members. I think my union, American Federation of Teachers, has been generally good for its members, if at times a bit resistant to changes in educational structures. My local hasn't accomplished much since our failed strike, memorialized in my thread Movement songs--I guess they've helped protect a few jobs, kept our benefits package from too much damage, but we've gone from one of the highest paid to one of the lowest paid school districts in the Bay Area in the period since the strike.

Some bay area garbage collectors just ended their strike with a pay raise, but without winning what they thought was their most important issue: forced overtime--they were, and I guess still are, working 10, 12, even 14 hour days six days a week, I guess because their company would rather pay them overtime than hire additional workers and have to pay their benefits. --seed