Collective Brutishness

I'll admit it, folks. My experiences with unions have been somewhat less than perfect. Just a few years ago, for example, the health-care workers union tried to organize at our facility and, youza/man, were those people ever obnoxious. They kept on trying to get people to sign these stupid cards and while, yes, some of the workers did it willingly/enthusiastically, most of the folks ended up signing one just to get these nincompoops off of our backs. Of course, what really ruined it for me (and, yes, I really did try and keep an open mind about it) was when two of the union ramrods, HELLO, came to my frigging house (I guess that they had me pegged as an "undecided"). THAT, I didn't care for AT ALL!.....Long story short, folks, when we ultimately ended up having the vote, the union lost and lost decidedly (something that wouldn't have occurred had that card-check legislation been in effect).................................................................................................Another bad experience of mine occurred in the early '90s. I was working for the state of Connecticut at a time when the state was experiencing a humongous budget deficit. The people who I was working with (at DMR) were almost unanimous in their willingness to make concessions. There were, however, a few exceptions. These were the people who had been there a long time and apparently had the most to lose - concession-wise. They were also, unfortunately, the most intimately connected to the union bosses. Bottom-line, folks, these bosses told Governor Weicker to stuff it - deciding that it was better to accept layoffs than it was to give a little. I guess that, yes, a deal was eventually worked out, but by that time I (and others) had already moved on (let's see, this was probably about a month after I had initially been laid off). I mean, I could have gone back and all but,.....nah, I couldn't...................................................................................................So, yeah, what basically happened was that the state lost a large chunk of their fresher, more productive work force and ended up with massive amount of dead-wood. Good goin', unions...................................................................................................Oh, and to make matters worse, one of these burnt-out individuals ended up abusing a resident. And they couldn't frigging get rid of her!! Collective bargaining - gotta love it, huh?