Simple question for all you union men, the true believers not the extorted.

You happy with what your union dues have bought?

To a point. I made really good money being in the pipe fitters union. But they protected the lazy SOBs that worked right along side of me. I normally ran jobs and I would have a lazy SOB on the job and I would lay him off. But the union would just send him out on some other job.

That hasn't changed.

I belong to a Operating Engineer Union and overall I'm satisfied with the ROI I receive.

I don't know how it is for other unions, but our working and yearly dues can only be used for operational and administration expenses.

PAC contributions are for the political/legislative stuff and are completely voluntary.

I do not contribute to the PAC fund, and prefer to contribute to the candidates or legislative causes on my own accord.

Worked 12 years in the Plumbers Pipefitters Union. There were good points and bad. Some very talented and hardworking tradesman. Biggest gripe, besides union dues going directly to the liberal candidates, was the major raiding of our pension fund to build a huge hotel in Tampa, Florida. The hotel ended up costing close to 600 million dollars but was only appraised at a little over 300 million dollars when completed. The National Union board members were unable to pay back the pension funds and were brought up on charges. The local union members had an additional $2.00 per hour taken from our checks to replenish the money pilfered from OUR pensions for this boondoggle. Upset a lot of members at that time and for those that remained it still holds a bitter taste.

Chris

For the most part, yes. I don't agree with some of the things they fight for/about.

I never supported or voted for who they wanted elected.

Was in the Teamsters in Chicago 701 and 731 and steel workers, neither was worth anything just glorified insurance company with poor service.

Agree with Beav

The biggest plus I see is that we make a higher wage than the non union guys that work for the same company just in different locations. Also in our contract is a limit on the amount of hours they can force us to work in a day/week. We can voluntarily work more but they can’t force it. Like Bruce said I support and vote for my candidate of choice not theres

Yes. Am retired with 38 years of UMWA. I also don't vote for who they say to. Just to be clear I'm a Republician that has trouble spelling right. You guys have a save day. I'm headed to get shoulder surgery in about 30 minutes

464 for 5 years. They stole my retirement when I quit.

Unions no longer exist for the members. They exist for the union leaders!

I have not had many instances to receive protection from My union. I have received several settlements over the years over Contract Violations some Larger than others. My Local does its best to enforce the National Contract which was either agreed on by both partys or handed down by an neutral arbitrator due to an In pass. My dues Have payed for an Arbitrator to resolve Contract issues several times and I feel I got my moneys worth on that alone.

I Vote as I want to.

No !!!

Unions never did squat for me except steal my dues money,
and use it to elect Liberal Progressive Democrats

I deployed the Supreme Court's Janus Decision,
and opted out of my last union 1st chance I got.

Unions are a carbuncle on the arse of the working man !!!

w

If It wasn't for the unions you would all be working for $8.00 an hour.

At $8 per hour we could put India and China out of business and our products and services would be affordable maybe.

Never belonged to a union. Worked for a life insurance company for 15 years before retiring. About 10% of the agents belonged to a union. Only one of them was a decent producer. The others were complainers and always negative. Low production caused most to eliminate themselves.

But we'd be able to actually buy something with that 8.00....

They have a 10$ magazine you had to buy also?

The railroad union was strong when I started out and made a lot of great gains for the workers in health and safety,hours/pay/vacation,also job security and pensions/retirements as well as benefits.
When the workforce got pared back,the union did not have the strength in numbers like before,and the company started to take advantage right away every chance they could and try to pare back the gains made by the workers over the years.
Once this started it was like a cancer and more work was contracted out,the quality of the work was poor by the contract companys and the costs to the company rose because of the inferior maintenance.The contractors had no stake in the well being of the company like the union workers did.
To give an example,when I started we had a section gang of 6 men for 25 miles of track.The track and right of way was maintained to the highest standards and track defects were rare as problems were fixed before they deteriorated,
As the workforce was reduced it was down to 2 men for 80 miles of track-no heavy work could be done by 2 men,when a defect was found a slow order was placed and trains backed up until a work crew could be called in to make repairs.
After a while the track was so bad the trains were crawling along customers were lost to trucking and the whole thing went downhill.
Once the unions were weakened and the workforce gutted,it didnt take long before the infrastructure went all to pot and everything -service-profits went with it.
Glad I got out with a decent pension when I did-the way the company was being run by incompetent yes men made me agitated whenever I had to deal with management.