The problem with unions isn't the rank-and-file, it's the Obamanazis in the union leadership. Where I work we are all union and all gun owners, yet we were basically told to support Obama or else. And a good chunk of my dues is being siphoned over to the Democrat National Socialists. To me that's like taking my church tithe money and handing it over to Satanists.
Its not just Obama. Its democrats. I was on strike once while working at IBP in Joslin IL back in Nov. of 1996. I was helping the union guys get food and coffee to the people on the line. I typically vote conservative and republican. It was 2 am and about -20 out in the dead of winter in the middle of no where, I asked him how was it fair that my money went to support democratic candidates when I do not support them and that I felt that was extortion? His reply was very educated... he said "I can pull the car over and you can get out and walk if you don't agree with it". I was pretty floored about the situation.
Needless to say he didn't talk to me ever again. Its not like I lost a good friend or anything. I also didn't stand on the picket line any more and the union still paid me for it (a whopping $65.00 per week).
I ended up taking another job after two weeks on strike (ironically with the same union and the same local). After 3 weeks on strike the UFCW got workers at IBP a ten cent raise and fives cents per year over a four year contract, and they ended up having to pay more for medical. It went from 11.00 per week to 45 for a single employee and from 15 to 65 for families. What a great Democratically supporting union. They did the same thing at the new job too (worked there for 4.5 years).
When I worked for Rochelle Foods I was an electrician making $13.25 per hour from 1997 to 2000. My co-worker said to me one day...
"My sister is a grocery checker in Dixon at Eagle Foods. She is in the same union and the same local as we are, and she is making $18.00 an hour!!"
Here we were, trained skilled labor and we made almost 5 bucks an hour less than a checker at a grocery store in the same union (UFCW). All because there were more grocery workers in the union than factory workers so the union catered to them. Plus the ratio of maintenance guys in those factories was not enough to offset the votes of the line workers so when we voted on a contract the maintenance guys had to take what was offered because their votes didn't matter.
Then in 2000 I took a job that had the Teamsters and their contract had a disclaimer at the end that said "This contract is subject to change"!
I am VERY happy to be a NON-union worker, and I am making more money now than I EVER did as a union worker and my benefits are outstanding.