[Calgaryborn]

It is easy to point to excesses within unionized industry. One could
assume from this thread that non-union employees all have a model
work ethic. Any business that is large will have problems with employees
because of the lack of supervision. This is especially true now with
many large companies eliminating most of their middle management as
a cost savings measure.

Someone mentioned the notion earlier in this thread that organized
unions has become like another level of government one has to deal with.
That is an apt description of many long established unions. They've
lost touch with the workers they are suppose to represent and instead
manage them as a commodity.

Having said that I do see an important future for unions. In my life time
our society has gone from a family with one income being able to but
the family home, have yearly vacations, save for retirement, ect. Today
it generally takes two incomes to accomplish the same goals. From a 40
hour work week(a bench mark established by unions in the twentieth
century) were seeing a persons work week expanding to 50 or 60 hours
in many work sectors. Shift work and split shifts are making it a lot harder to have functional families or contribute to the community. With a shrinking
work force demands on the working man/women will increase. Taxes will
logically have to increase to make up the short fall in the work force. The
favorable work conditions many non-union workers enjoy came about because of Union activity in the early part of the last century. One day soon we are going to need organized unions to step in and curb the erosion that has been occurring in the last thirty years. I'm not sure if the current established unions will be up to this task. We might see new grass roots organizations grab the ball that the established unions have dropped.