yes. had to look it up and I found a nice

If you believe there's strength in numbers, then you probably understand why some 16 million American workers belong to labor unions.

The concept behind labor unions is straightforward: If you're an employee and you want your employer to make some sort of lasting change in your favor -- raising your salary or offering you broader benefits, for example -- you may have a better chance of getting what you want if you convince most or all of your coworkers to join together, or unionize, to ask for the same thing, perhaps even at the same time.

Unionization assumes employers will be more likely to listen to and make concessions in favor of workers who have banded together, because otherwise companies could face labor slowdowns or even strikes.

It's a simple enough idea, but the eventual effect is practically unavoidable: Labor unions and employers are, almost by definition, at odds. It only makes sense that labor unions are glorified by some, despised by others and viewed with bewilderment by many more. How can you decide if union membership is for you?

In Favor

Labor union supporters argue that unions have had a positive impact on American workers and the American economic system as a whole for decades. Proponents say that if it weren't for unions, many American workers wouldn't be able to count on now-commonplace benefits like:

• The eight-hour workday with time-and-a-half for overtime work.
  
  
  
  
  
• Higher wages. Union workers earn about 25 percent more each year than nonunion workers do, according to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), a federation composed of 65 labor unions in the United States.
  
  
  
  
  
• Fringe benefits like health insurance, company pension and retirement plans, life and disability insurance, and reimbursement for continuing education expenses.
  
  
  
  
  
• A safe work environment.
  
  
  
  
  
• Formal procedures for working out grievances with supervisors or other members of a company's management team.
  

Perhaps that's why so many Americans belong to labor unions and why union representation has become part of such a wide variety of occupations in both the blue-collar and white-collar worlds. Bus drivers, doctors, teachers, electricians, engineers, postal workers, musicians, construction workers -- all of them and many others are union members.

Opposed

Labor unions have many vocal critics, too. Some opponents say the organizations are simply too big and inefficient to be of any practical benefit to their members, let alone the country as a whole.

Critics charge that sometimes labor unions' high-level leaders -- whether at the local, state or national level -- work only to carry out their own personal agendas, not to meet the needs of their groups' members. (Indeed, some labor unions have been investigated for corruption, because their leaders allegedly used union funds for their own purposes. And in a few cases, labor unions have been accused of having links with organized crime.)

Get Informed Before You Decide

It's no wonder many American workers are a little less than certain about their level of knowledge and their beliefs when it comes to labor unions. Sound familiar? If so:

Read About Labor Unions and Labor Issues

Learn more about labor unions and the history of the labor movement in America. Be sure to examine the issue from both the employee's and employer's point of view.

Talk to Union Leaders and Employers

Find out how the people leading labor unions in your area define what they do and why they do it. What positive and negative impacts have employers in your area seen as a result of union organization in their companies?

Look for Stories About Union-Management Conflict in the News

In the currently sluggish economy in particular, disagreements and more serious conflicts between unions and corporate management tend to make the news more often. You can also read up on some of these issues in our HR Watch legal briefs.

To learn more about labor unions, try these Web sites as well:

• National Right to Work Committee
  
  
  
  
  
• National Labor Relations Board

• How many here would support unionizing if they had the chance? Yes or No is sufficient for now. NM - Leadfeather
  • Unionizing - Pollyanna
  • Unionize - Linda
    • Unions - Ellie
  • Unions are increasingly a thing of a by-gone era. In this global economy, - I think it would drive jobs offshore even more. n
  • Just tell prospective employers you...sm - No Piece worker...
  • Nope, even more would end up offshore. - nm
    • IMO, you're not thinking it through all the way but don't want to get into that now. NM - Leadfeather
    • I say let them try to send all of their work offshore - me
      • Especially if we were organized enough to...sht msg - Leadfeather
  • no - nm
    • union - kat2
  • YESSSSSS - CM
  • Not only no but HELL NO!!!!! - KB Diva
  • Yes - Yes
  • no - no
  • Yes! I'll go for unionizing anyday - over AAMT which tries to
    • union - MadamX
  • Support union - YES! - ssc
  • YES...nm - javalover
  • No. - memt
  • Unions - Quest
  • yes. had to look it up and I found a nice - article inside about unions
  • No. - Busy MT'ing
  • YES nm - me
    • Union -YES - alleycat
  • YYEEEEESSSS!!!!! - Current Transcender
  • NO - tn
  • yes - yes
  • YES!! - Souzam

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I use the Microsoft Natural Keyboard. Locally it sells for $49.95, but through this web site it's only $29.95.

They seem to have a lot of nice deals. Check it out!  

Yikes, we must have done something wrong because our posts are all gone.   Oh well.  Glad we agree on some things.  As the saying goes, life would be very boring if we all agreed on everything and there was no such thing as opinions.  Keeps life interesting! 

Actually, in my opinion, Frankie boy had me rolling on the floor.  I know undoubtedly some of his remarks were down right crude, but for some reason the people were just responding to him which just kept him going and going and going. 

So glad we understand each other and accept the differences we have.  Have a good day!

i am new to this board and it is refreshing to see nice stories instead of everyone complaining about their jobs.  there is so more troubling stuff in this world besides what we do for work. 

my little brother (he is 31) is going in for brain surgery tomorrow.  the doc found a lesion on his brain last october when he was rushed to the hospital when his girlfriend found him having a seizure in the middle of the night.  he was totally blue and not breathing.  first they said it was a stroke.  the did a repeat scan and the lesion was still there and had not changed in size.  they did a pet and there is nothing anywhere else in his body.  they finally went in to do a biopsy on this lesion a few weeks ago.  they sent the specimen to 5 different pathologists in our area (boston) and no one could identifiy it.  so, tomorrow he goes in to have the whole thing removed with a risk of loosing his speech and hearing. 

things like this make me just get up and do my job.  it makes it very difficult to complain about silly stuff when you hear all these stories.  thank you for sharing your story.  brought a smile to my face this morning (and a tear or two).  i will be thinking of this tomorrow when i'm sitting in the waiting room.  thank you again.

I get some of my voice files by email so I have to keep my email open all the time.

And my lead likes us to keep our IM open in case she wants to get in touch with us quickly. However, I have blocked everyone except coworkers from this particular IM.

I do the same thing, open it, click done, then it goes to the next one.  Would be nice to program it to operate with the keyboard instead of always using the mouse.