Unions are good if they have a legitimate need. My paternal grandfather was union (he actually helped organize) down in Philly where he worked for the Budd plant making trolleys and train cars back in the 40's-60's. When he died 1 1/2 hours before he was due to retire at 62 (cancer) his union stepped in and made Budd honor his full pension so my grandmother would have support. The company was gonna be like "Hey, he died before retirement so you're SOOL, lady."

When they're out of touch with the locals though...

My *other* grandfather was a trucker, working for a small company near Philly (North Penn Transfer). The company hit hard times, so ownership stepped in and said "Hey, the only way we can survive is if you guys take a pay cut until we can hopefully turn things around. Can you vote on it and get back to us? The only alternative is we'd have to shut down operations."

So the employees voted and agreed to the paycut... until word was sent up the chain of command to the union HQ who said it would set a bad precedent and blocked it.

Company basically said WELP and shut down and everyone lost their jobs as a result.

Its most definitely NOT a black and white issue.