The importance of unions

I don't know that I agree, Thistle - I agree that generally, unions are a good thing, and a necessary thing, but how good or bad a particular union is can affect the public perception of unions as a whole, and I think that is something worth discussing or being concerned about.

Indirectly....yes. It's easier to sway those who may be on the fence about unions if you can show more benefits than liabilities. If someone is an on-the-fence conservative...they may be swayed from becoming a full-blown Union-Busting supporter.

It's not clear how much this is a problem of public perception. The Republicans, fuelled by a fundamentalist and angry Tea Party movement, are doing things and taking some extreme positions that don't necessarily have wide public support. They have what seems to be narrow but fierce support, whereas many of the people who disagree with those positions disagree fairly mildly and hence don't provide an effective opposition.

I'm not sure that tipping a few people into the "Oh, hey, unions aren't that bad" camp is going to change much.

(I mean, ideally, yes, the discussion should go in two stages: (i) let's discuss why unions are worthwhile institutions to have in principle and (ii) let's discuss how to make unions work better for their members in practice. But when proposition (i) is rejected out of hand, proposition (ii) becomes moot.)

As a sidenote, the Republicans is unlikely to translate into big electoral gains for them. More likely, it's just making the US body politic particularly toxic, and spreading the harm and damage all around.

I am presently in a public employee union and just became a steward. I am not impressed with the unity or communications but I am willing to learn, wait and see. i do not think it is as simple as union or not. It is definately not fair to blame unions. Management has to agree to any contract. I do not believe that there is a concerted effort to "break" unions that is stronger now than it has always been. There is a natural friction between unions and management and right now management has done a better job of playing to the audience. Unions need to sell themselves better and to provide something that the workers need. So far they are not succeeding.

If union-busting bills introduced by nearly every Republican-controlled state legislature in the country doesn't constitute a concerted effort to break unions, I surely do not know what would.

What do you call it when something is so funny you could cry, except minus the funny? I swear there's a word for that. What is it? Oh, right.

Depressing.