Once upon a time unions had their place and protected workers so they got a fair shake. Nowadays things like child labour, minimum wage, overtime pay, and safety in the workplace have minimum standards set out by the government and laws. We do not need a union to stop children being used as dynamite mules in coal mines, we have laws that stop that practice. We do not need a union to make sure people are not paid $2/hr, we have laws that stop these things if they are made public.
Unions no longer protect the fair rights of workers, most unions these days push wages and benefits beyond fair market value and eventually cause the companies the union workers are employed by to become uncompetitive in the marketplace. The huge car manufacturer bailout not that long ago was caused by US car companies being unable to compete on the global stage because of unions that demanded too much. It was American tax payers that ultimately ended up subsidizing the unreasonable pay demands of those workers and that unsustainable business model. The costs of that bailout are far higher then the actual money those companies were given, the paperwork, bureaucracy, the interest on the money that the government itself had to borrow in order to hand it over, Americans paid for it all.
It is great that you are in a union, it is great that you are going to be sipping pina coladas on a beach in the Caribbean in your retirement, but when you are keep in mind that other people who are never going to be able to afford to be on that beach that helped subsidize your ability to do that because they were in a non-union job and not only "just" got paid fair market value but also had to chip in their share to help subsidize union jobs like yours.
I agree with you, take what you can get. But at least be honest and aware of what it might have cost others that you were able to have that quality of life for you and your family. Laugh at those in the rat race, think they are all stupid for doing what they do, but at the same time know that those rats helped put you where you are today.
Also understand, you are one of the last that will get to benefit from unions like you did. They will eventually collapse under the weight of the global economy, and when they fall they are going to take a large portion of the economy of the USA down with them and contribute to the eventual fall of your nation as a superpower. I hope you enjoy that pina colada, rest assured it is a costly one.
