I've worked for Teamsters Local 284 as a loader and unloader for UPS. Everybody talking about Amazon propaganda, you haven't seen anything until you've seen Te

I've worked for Teamsters Local 284 as a loader and unloader for UPS. Everybody talking about Amazon propaganda, you haven't seen anything until you've seen Teamsters propaganda. You feel like you've joined a church, it's ridiculous. And I've never in my life worked at a place where there was an outwardly combative relationship between management and staff. No cooperation whatsoever. I wouldn't go back to the teamsters because it's gross and creates dysfunction. My wife worked for the National Education Association for 15 years. I can't recall a single positive comment that she made about the union. The way the contracts are structured, educators get locked in to their home district after 5-10 years. They are useless for mediating anything but issues that are already written up in the contract and the ability for loafers to coast for the entirety of their career is commonly discussed and real. She would avoid the union because it coddles losers and doesn't lift a finger for staff dealing with real issues. The only partial success story with unions that I'm aware of is with my brother, a lineman for AT&T. He's had that job for almost 30 years (through a variety of telcos ultimately renamed AT&T) and has been a member of the Communication Workers of America. He talks about endless frustration with the union, that the reps are useless and that the contracts they negotiate are terrible. But he does have the ability to tell his management to fuck off if they ask him to do something dangerous (which happens rarely but enough to matter) and he takes advantage of that from time to time. He might re-up for a union, i don't know.