Over 16 million American workers are in unions.[1] That's 11% of workers. Not popular, but not rare either. Most Americans know somebody with a union job. Most

Over 16 million American workers are in unions.[1] That's 11% of workers. Not popular, but not rare either. Most Americans know somebody with a union job. Most don't feel too strongly about being in one or not. It's just part of the job. That said, talking to Americans in union jobs often gets you tales of dysfunction. My mother was in a nurse's union for a quarter-century. (She's since gone to business school and taken a non-union job.) Her dinnertime stories were absurd. Representatives constantly squabbled about petty things. They negotiated pay scales based on seniority instead of performance. Ditto for scheduling. Older nurses got to work days, while younger nurses (often still raising kids) were stuck with night shifts. Incompetent nurses were paid the same as proficient ones, and firing was quite rare. The whole situation led to more stress and hostility than seemed worthwhile. So why didn't my mother leave the nurse's union? Because she'd lose her job. The union had negotiated a deal requiring union membership for employment at that hospital. I hope unions are better elsewhere, but here they often do little more than discourage good workers while protecting bad ones. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_unions_in_the_United_States#Labor_unions_today http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_unions_in_the_United_Stat...