>>While this is true, I wonder if the union is still representative of the workers. In my experience, people negotiating the contract rarely have the best inte

>>While this is true, I wonder if the union is still representative of the workers. In my experience, people negotiating the contract rarely have the best interest of the rank-and-file employees. I have negotiated several union contracts, if we knew we would need to cut positions in the near future, all you had to do was promise a small jump in pay to the senior employees (usually the ones negotiating across the table from you) - and they then happily threw the new hires and junior people under the bus to pad their own paychecks. Worked like magic every-time. Literally tell the person negotiating the contract that they could personally get a $5K bump in pay (i.e. by offering a longevity bonus in the contract) , and they would give the green light to cut as many people as we needed to make that happen.