There seem to be a lot of posts that state, in one form or another, that unions are imperfect. Unions, it seems, are flawed and can indeed at times, or indeed r

There seem to be a lot of posts that state, in one form or another, that unions are imperfect. Unions, it seems, are flawed and can indeed at times, or indeed regularly, act in the interests of senior officials rather than those of their members. Hello! They are organizations. They are staffed by human beings. They are not going to be perfect. They will do dumb things. Some may be outright corrupt. This however is not the point. The issue is not whether they live up to their ideals any more than whether any other organization does so. The point is whether their basic mission is such that they add value to the life of the average working stiff. On this last point the evidence is fairly clear. For all their hideous imperfections, most people are better off with some kind of umbrella organization acting more or less in their interests. Do you really imagine that the 'fat cats' think that their managers optimize their earnings as they would like? Do you think that they imagine that the members of congress they pay off do as good a job as they would like tweaking the laws to their liking? Of course not. They are pissed. They don't think they get value for money. They dis this lobbyist and scream at that editor and hold back funding from that congressman. Life isn't perfect. Why should unions be any different?