[color=#660000][b]My 2 cents may be a little lengthy so I will apologize in advance. When I got out of HS I went to work for a foundry that was unionized. It was a local union with no national affiliations. IT SUCKED. Being green and right out of school I was ignorant to a lot of life issues. I learned the hierarchy of that union was corrupt and some in bed with the company. Some including the President were made management. I learned to HATE union. I loathed unions.

After 8 years of that I took a job with Dana Corp / Mack Trucks. A new business venture with a new local plant. We were farmed out by Mack to build front and rear axles and carriers for Mack Trucks and then then Off road and specialty chassis. Dana treated us like Royalty. One could not have asked for a better company to work for at that time. Wages were good, benefits were second to none and the management well, it was heaven. Slowly upper LOCAL management changed. With that came different managerial attitudes. Although Dana Corps vision was still the foundation, the local vision was different.

The GREAT company we worked for began changing for the worse. Although not bad enough for unionization once could see it was getting worse. In 2003 Dana got a divorce from Mack Trucks. The partnership dissolved. Mack was faced with a dilemma. Either take the business back which meant higher costs or seek out another partner. They sought out an outfit from VA. Basically what they are is a labor broker. Before this, Mack Trucks was brought out by Volvo, and Volvo in it's southern Plant subbed out an outfit to build it's trucks engines. That's right, VOLVO truck engines are made mostly by TEMPS and local NON VOLVO employees. This labor broker promotes TEMPS.

This labor broker then purchased Dana's labor at my facility like a heard of cattle. Mack took care of everything but labor. Suddenly we became the "property" of a labor broker. If you ever worked for a temp agency then you know what I am writing about. We were PROMISED and guaranteed by this labor broker nothing would change. I.E. Benefits, wages etc. No sooner was that promise made things changed in a hurry. Head hunting began. People with tenure were marked for assassination. Many good people were terminated for costs savings. People with less service were kept on. They did not have the earned vacations etc that the charter member workers had. Then came SEVERE benefit reductions and obscene out of pocket deductibles and weekly withholdings. We saw out of pocket costs soar over 150% overnight. People were being terminated on hearsay and the place went to hell in a hurry.

This labor broker over and over again told us we are at will employees and as such "we will do what we want when we want and if you don't like it there's the door you will be replaced my temps." I personally called the unfair labor board and inquired about what can be done to protect our rights. The first question I was asked by them was.. Are you union? I said no we are not. I was then told there is nothing we can do for you. PA is an at will work state and you have NO RIGHTS. If you want protection I (meaning the person I was talking to) suggested we organize. So here I was. A guy who hated unions getting involved with the UAW to organize to protect MY and MY family's best interests. Not to mention my 20 years service, that I had seen others being fired at will and replaced with TEMPS. We began a union drive and it failed because of the anti campaigns. I was offered upper management positions 4 different times. I declined.

OK Longer story Short. We endured the continued firings and continued sky high soaring medical costs and every single benefit Dana afforded us was eliminated. We were left sodomized. 2003 I was approached to get involved again in a union drive. I declined 3 times until I learned there was overwhelming support. I again got involved. WHY???? There comes a time in everyone's life when they have to