You too, eh?
When 'my' local decided to go with a new contract with the employer that would have taken us off the UFCW's health insurance (which was horrible) the national stepped in and forced a strike. Bunch of crooks didn't want to give up their slice of the pie and screwed over their "brothers and sisters" in the process.
Hated belonging to that (or any) union, but to have the job I had to pay the dues under state law so I joined to avoid any pressure at work. Got some anyway; "So, where's the union patch on your work jacket?"
I was in a union once. Same kind of deal...the old guys negotiated a good deal for themselves, left the younger ones in the lurch. Then they said, “Well, this is the best we can get, so let’s go for it.”
I remember it well: me and another young worker were the ONLY ONES who voted to reject the contract.
Now this was when I was young and liberal....so I thought unions were GOOD then. One of those early lessons I got that eventually turned me to the right side of things.
Back in the 90s I “played” a union organizer in a union organizing film. The film was supposed to teach people how to organize. The production made to show people how to form a union was non-union because they didn’t want to pay SAG wages.
So I see I’m not the only one screwed by the UFCW. Worked in a Grocery store during college. The only thing the union was good at was protecting the most useless people form getting fired.
Paid dues ($7 something a week) and all I got was a quarterly magazine, which they still send me (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2949239/posts). Also I got the pleasure of having Union reps show up and give me stickers to tell me how great the union is and all the great things it does. They never said what they were.
Once during a contract negation one rep showed up and stared to tell me how eeevil the company was, making money, etc, and gave me a sticker. I asked the rep how he made his six figure salary. That seemed to touch a nerve as he threw a roll of stickers on the floor and walked off.