Where have all the unions gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the unions gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the unions gone?
Reps have shut them all down.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

I was the adjunct union rep before I was full-time and travelled downstate once a month for eight months a year. That's about a 6-9 hour drive, depending on where they met. After a couple of years and getting caught in numerous snow storms one direction or the other, I suggested we progress to televised or electronic meetings for safety, expediency, and cost-management reasons. This was about 2007, but the suggestion was met with excuses--can't be done, too much trouble, etc. I suggested Google Hang-Out, but that was still met with resistance. Although I didn't make it an issue, I disliked the money side of being a rep. "You won't get paid for that" was one frequent refrain as well as my feeling guilty at the expense of the hotel choices, menu offered, and freebies distributed. I knew how difficult it was to pay the dues on a part-time salary and resented what I considered squandering of my and other's money, yet in a closed shop, we needed a union. I finally gave the role up to someone who had fewer qualms than I had. Many times, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

What union?

Regularly attend ATU 1005 (bus company up here in the Twin Cities) meetings and have been a voting clerk and gathered signatures for petitions at bus stops around the cities. Walked the picket lines for 2 strikes caused by Republican governors. Try and spread the word of the benefits of unions but not always easy with the current Koch funded climate. You?

As a recovering Republican (I consider myself an independent now), I used to think unions were the devil. Talking to some of the old guys around my office, they used to earn 1/5th of what we earn now that we have unionized. The pay literally quintupled about 7 years ago when they got union backing. I'm not complaining about unions anymore.