T. Judah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > You sound anti-union.
>
>
> I wouldn't say that at all - but I am sort of
> disillusioned with them. I suspect that is a very
> common feeling in the general populace also)
>
> While I am well aware of the need for unions, and
> generally sympathetic; I have witnessed way too
> much corruption, favoritism, and heavy handedness
> against our own members, etc., to be happy. And
> yes, managements are often just as corrupt and
> heavy handed (and stupid); usually bringing it
> upon themselves when their employees want a union.
>
>
> But in my experiences; instead of having someone
> on our side to fight our battles, most of us found
> ourselves to be nothing but pawns, stuck in the
> middle between two powerful (and sometimes
> violent) warring factions; neither of which was
> looking out for anyone but their own narrow
> institutional interests. Needless to say - nobody
> ever really won. Not only were we poorer for it,
> but the company was profoundly weakened also.
>
> Obvious to say, I hated working in such an
> adversarial environment. Odd then I suppose, that
> I then became a paralegal, as legal work sometimes
> degenerates into just that; but at least, I am
> not personally involved.
>
> The big benefit of a semi-professional career is
> that there is relative job mobility. There are
> thousands of potential employers out there and not
> too many of us; providing a much better balance in
> the labor market. Whereas in the railroad
> industry, there are only a few employers and many
> many employees (few buyers vs many sellers of
> labor); thus no economic balance of power at all.
> It is in that kind of warped labor market, where
> unionism is probably essential to any balance at
> all.
>
> I just wish unions were better at it, and truly
> had their member's interests at heart; or that
> there was some entirely better way. But I have no
> idea what that would be.

So I gather you've never worked for a railroad or been in a railroad union. As I mentioned in one of my responses to this thread, it's pretty common for railbuffs to apply negative comments about railroad unions even though they've never been in one.

Here's a parallel. In 1983 my eldrely mother fell on a city-owned sidewalk in front of a bank. A friend of her's who made a living off of suing businesses talked her into retaining a personal injury lawyer. My mom was assigned a paralegal who handled her case. The paralegal, on behalf of the law firm, demanded an up-front retainer, plus that my mom pay all the on-going expenses incurred by the paralegal associated with her case (for example, paying for film to take pictures of the sidewalk, then developing it, and for the gas for the paralegal to run these errands, etc.), was made to go to multiple depositions on her own by riding city busses that took several hours and multiple transfers to get to the various locations while recovering from her injury, even though the paralegal was driving by car, and on and on. When I found out about this stuff, I flew to Southern California and met with the lawyer and paralegal, who seemed perfectly fine to be nickel-and-diming a little old lady. Untimately, after doing this for the better part of a year my mom's health deteriorated to the point where she couldn't physically participate, so after she'd spent several thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses the lawfirm would no longer proceed with her case. So based on all this, should I assume that all lawyers and paralegals are money-grubbing ambulance chasers and all-around scumbags?