My girlfriend had to join a union in order to work for the City of Seattle. She is extremely skilled and gets paid the same as her incompetent co-workers -- and she can't demonstrate her skills and get a raise. It is an obvious and well-known fact that if you are in danger of getting fired for not being able or willing to do your job, you just file a union grievance and you have instant job security. It's actually less expensive for the city to carry a bad employee than to fight the union. Besides, everyone who disagrees with the union is immediately called a union buster.

If the unions were dedicated to providing the very best employees possible (and weeding out the bad), they could be great partners with companies and high-caliber employees wouldn't get mashed down the lowest level. As it is, I distrust most unions as thoroughly as I do most companies. My preferred situation would be to have employment laws that are so good that unions would be unnecessary. As if! All those millionaires in the Senate . . . that's why we have unions in the first place . . .