Now personally, I have always refused to join a union if one was present where I worked (and the laws of my state permit that). I don't like the concept of collective bargaining. I prefer that my value be dictated by my performance and not because of what some union thug and Mgmt rep decide it's worth. Plus, I think mgmt should be able to fire bad workers without needing an act of congress. The above union description sounds pretty ideal to me.
My union is for support staff in a school district, it is a standard contract as is the teachers/certified staff.
Here is a big secret, you CAN fire most tenured teachers as well.
BUT you have to follow the grievance policy which most admins are too lazy to do, my sister in law, fired a tenured staff member last year, it was dragged out because the superintendent gave this individual a huge break. They had gone trough warning and two remediation phases and should have been terminated forthwith, yet it was the administration that gave them yet another two remediation phases.
They failed those two as well, people in my union get fired all the time, about three a year, the main issue is that administrators WON'T take the time to fire tenured staff. Except when they engage in gross malfeasance.
I like the contract, I have worked at will my whole life, three times I have lost my job because of ******** supervisors would did not like me. Not because of my competence or job performance, but because they had a personality issue with me. And so they would trump up a cause to fire me, no hearing, no verbal warning, no written warnings, not following procedures and policy as written, just termination. And then they would say, 'You can draw unemployment'.
Unions are no worse then the crony politics and personal gain choices made by administration.
Now what I hate are when union members (not the union) try to make a deal out of something not in the contract. Which in my union never even makes it very far, they do useful things like try to get us full medical, most of us aides are 'full time' at 7 hours/day, so we do not get full medical. So they fight for stuff like that and standard step increase...
Now the certified staff union is much whinier and more powerful and my employer has a history that they still continue of allowing the union to try to do human relations, and become in NON-CONTRACT issues. And this is the fault of the union rep and the administration.
And I blame the administration, the school board and the union on this one. We had some ******** of the first degree from the last director of HR who violated state law and policy at will. This created a really bad situation and the certified staff union became all involved in stuff that is not in the contract. Hopefully this will change but I doubt it.
