That's the kind of thing that makes me be embarrassed to be part of a union, honestly. Our U just had a furlough as well and the union was outraged about it - but I'd rather lose those days of my pay than have other people lose their jobs. (Neverminding the union's constant goings-on about the need to "chop from the top" by cutting the salaries of the people making more than $200K. You get what you pay for when you hire Deans, I'm just saying.)

I did not have a choice about being a union or not - if I want this job, I *have* to pay the dues. I would agree with the concept of letting people decide whether or not they want to be union or not except then you start running into intimidation issues and a weakening of the union's leverage to get things done, and then things are even more of a mess.

Perhaps if we made adequately funding education and public services a priority, we wouldn't need the unions around to get up on their soapboxes and yell about the problems we have.