If you have been reading thru this thread you may have sensed some bitterness by my previous 2 posts. (maybe not, but I am) So instead of me just being upset let me explain why and then you decide for yourself if you also would be bitter about unions. BTW, before I begin I realize that not all unions are the same, but if it looks like a skunk and smells like a skunk.......
Anyway, let me begin. Four years ago I was working for a large company, we were cookin along just like SkyWest, but we thought we deserved more money and some other things as well. What did we do? Accepted cards, sent them in, had a vote and bingo we had a union. Now we were all thrilled, me included, I'd never worked for a union but it sure sounded better than what we had, key word there is sounded if your taking notes. Oh and btw the compnay was dead set against the union which is probably not a surprise I just wanted to include that. Ok, so now we get union benefits, we go to sign up for our health care which is now from the union, not the company, which I didn't know about before I voted. The lady tells me that my benefits won't start for 3 months (I was now a new participant) ok,,, well I told my kids not to get hurt or I'd have to use cobra, ouch. So the lady tells me that my premiums will start coming out of my check immediately but my benefits don't start for 3 months. I said "when do I get my 900 dollars back (my share of 3 months of premiums, which was more than I was paying thru the company insurance) she said that I didn't get it back, I said what about when I retired or left the company. She said,,,, that I never get it back, this money goes to the union to help pay for the plan! But there has to be a good ending right? Actually no, we went into talks to increase our pay etc. I paid 30 dollars a month for 2 years without ANY gain in pay or qol. After 2 years the company closed our base (our base was responsible for the union push) and told us we could move to another base, the nearest of which was 600 miles away. I had been 5 minutes from the airport and didn't want to commute or move. So to summerize, we gained nothing and lost our base, 900 dollars for premiums, and 30 bucks a month for two years, before we lost everything. So back to post number two of this thread. "IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT"! Now I realize that I had been naive about the whole union idea, but when I got around the "union" guys they made it sound so good. I mean it sounded great! I got so wrapped up in the whole "we deserve more" theme that it was like a drug floating in the air, I couldn't help myself. Looking back on it I was just being selfish, we were making just about the same as everyone else (some more, some less) but we were doing great and I felt that the reason we were doing so well as a company was because of all of us and that we deserved it! Anyway, call me an idiot and you'd be right. I just don't want that to happen to me again. Once bitten twice shy. Sorry for the rant, but I feel better. Thank you.