[Cerebus]

I'm reminded of the old "the Devil's biggest trick is to make people believe He doesn't exist" line. Given that we now live in a society where responsibility to shareholders supercedes responsibility to employees, the need for collective bargaining has never been higher.

Are unions a panacea? Hell no, and they are increasingly less relevant to a modern workforce, given that we'l hold 8 jobs on average in our lives, instead of 3. (A number that I'm coming close to doubling at age 31, depending on how far you count back.) I've never worked for a union shop, and given what I do, probably never will; my leverage is created by my essential Free Agent nature.

But if you've chosen a career with limited use outside of your present company, and if said company has behaved poorly enough in the past to create a union, the chances of it continuing to behave in that fashion are a lock. So whether or not the non-union public likes them isn't relevant. They aren't there to make anyone *but* their members happy... and in general, making people who are lower on the food chain happy is a good thing, both for the karma of a nation with non-static classes and the economy.

After all, the last thing anyone would want is for our nation to be led by idiotic children of priviledge, right?