Are we too unionized?

a recent article in the rocky mountain news talked about how a security gaurd who got fired because she fell asleep on the job three times will get he job back because of unions. (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/20...
That is not all at my school a teacher was fired because she was recorded threatening a student, she was head of teacher's union and she got her job back.
How can our nation progress while providing such a security blanket for failure on the job.

My boyfriend's mother works for the post office. After working there for a year, she called in six times without doctor's notes, was late an average of three times a week, and had a sub par work ethic. When she was finally fired, she appealed to the union and got her job back, and eventually worked with the union to sue the post office for wrongful termination and won a giant sum of money right out of the pockets of the taxpayers. This year, she got into an altercation with another employee, where she verbally abused her and then actually hit her several times on company property. She still has her job. Therefore, yes, we are far too unionized.

Link didn't work
After retiring, at a part time job I too was fired for a similar incident but had no union to protect me. I "dozed off" (company term) on the day shift after coming in because they had no staff after working the previous night for 12 hours (I was fired only because the "big boss" caught me, otherwise it would have been overlooked)
Some student set teachers up know the consequences.
The union is not always right, but sometimes needed to protect the unprotected.
The job you hold may not be union, but a lot of your rights and benefits are given to you because of the union

You can point to failures in the system true, but on average its fair

You need to know much more than you have given to give an intelligent answer on this particular case.
Most of the world is under unionised. You will hear about cases where the wealthy think that people can be manipulated into believing that the union has been wrong. Unions are anathema to them because they interfere with their god-given right to exploit and ill-treat their staff.
If you wish to return to the time when 18-hour days were the norm for workers including very young children, injury or death on the job was tough - no assistance, go to the workhouse hospital then workhouse - and wages were insufficient for most to even eat properly - go ahead.

Unions are not perfect. There will always be circumstances such as the ones on spoke of where bad apples get to keep their jobs.

BUT!

The unions are there to protect the good workers too. I for example work in the restaurant Industry. It is the 2nd highest industry for labor violations ( the framing industry being the worst). Neither have unions.

I never get a break
No paid holidays
No raises
No sick days
No health
No dental
No 401k
No profit sharing
No job security
and worst of all....

If you have a problem with your employer......Guess what. You better get a different job because you have no one to go to.


I would HAPPILY let a few bad apples take advantage of the system to have the benefits that most people take for granted.

I don't think the problem is that we're too unionized - it's the "my union member right or wrong" attitude that many unions follow that's causing these problems.

Unions lose all credibility when they protect members that really should be fired. Somehow, they have to learn that some of these guys have standards to meet and, when they don't, they won't get support.

I'd say 9 times out of 10 its the employers treating the employees badly, not vice versa.

For such little pay in the service industry you need the unions to protect the workers or else working conditions would get out of control because employers could do whatever they want with no thought for employees

And here, I thought I knew most of the nations on earth, but I missed the nation you live in. Where is that little thing located, or was it all just a dream?