asterism
Congress != Progress
I think I've got a rather unique viewpoint on this topic. I've been a Contractor, a Non-Union Employee, and am now a Union Employee (and currently department Steward) with the company that I currently work for.
I spent five years as a contractor, about eighteen months as a non-union employee, and have now been a Union employee for about three and a half years. Each one of those systems has had its positive and negative factors to it. The most positive of the Union factors.... I still have a job.
The company I work for wanted to ship my job to Syracuse, NY. Not because I can't do the job, or even because the people in Syracuse can do it better (or even as well). It's because the Syracuse workforce can produce work that is 80% of the quality of what I do for about 40% of the pay I receive. It would also take them longer to do it. The quality of the work meant nothing to the company. Only the fact that they could get a bunch of money off the books meant anything to them.
As I said, there are positives and negatives to all three of the ways I've been employed.
I've worked as a non-Union employee in two other engineering offices in the course of my life as well. In small companies, the non-Union workforce isn't that big of an issue, though there were times where nepotism and favoritism were obviously evident in both of those offices. That's the reason I chose to leave one of those companies in the first place.
In larger companies, where PROFIT is the only real interest or focus of the company, Unions still most definitely have a place in protecting and defending the rights of the workers.
I'm not saying that the Union is a panacea either. I really think that both sides need to sit down and realize that they BOTH win if the company is profitable and the employees are taken care of. All too often I see Union employees who think they work for the Union, not the company. By which I mean they're out to SCREW the company any way they can, and see their loyalty as being only to the UNION, rather than to who signs their paychecks. Likewise I see companies that are out to SCREW the Union and its employees at every turn, not realizing how much this destroys morale and workplace efficiency.
There needs to be a middle ground in these negotiations and viewpoints. A spot where the company gets to make its profits and the employees get treated fairly. I once heard a line, which I believes would be an excellent measuring stick for Union-Management negotiations.... "If, at the end of the day, everyone on both sides is equally pleased and displeased with the agreement, it's probably been done right."
Just my $0.02 for whatever it's worth.
Show us where government makes its profits then negotiate from there.