Well written Mick. I do not know a lot about unions except that In my experience we avoided them as much as possible. When I think of unions I envision Mafia types as leaders and people sitting around reading magazines and making the upper $20's an hour at Ford because of some contract requirement and some lack of work for thier particular expertize. WTF? They can't stoop low enough to do something else? The earth might crack open if they do something that is not in the contract.

We had an ex-union man in our shop because he was banned from the union. He was a Business Agent who had taken bribes and embezzled money. I used to bum around with another and he damned near got me in jail several time by infulencing me into stealing things.

I am realted to another that is a real straight, workaholic and he has occasionally sided with the companies on the wages they have to pay. He also relates to me how his company buys another, liquidates it an fires everybody to eliminate competition.

All that said, I realize that I am probably biased against the unions and they are probably not so bad if I just knew more.