Labor Unions - are you for or against it and why?

[A Theist]

theVoid,
If you bother to read labour history you will appreciate that real improvements in pay and conditions in the workplace were hard-won through collective struggle by organised labour, often at great cost to union activists. Ever heard of the Tolpuddle Martyrs for example?

My wife is a cousin to Sid Hatfield, a pro union sherriff in Matewan West Virginia, and union hero of the Matewan Massacre. On the morning of May 19, 1920, 13 Baldwin Felts detectives, hired union busting thugs of the coal companies, came into town to evict the families of pro union workers who were living in company housing. They were confronted by Sid Hatfield and six other towns people, including the town's mayor. Hatfield told the hired detectives that he did not allow guns in his town, that he was the law, and he ordered them to surrender their firearms. A gun fight erupted and 7 Baldwin Felts thugs and 4 towns people lay dead, including the town's mayor. Hatfield was later aquitted of murder. However, better than one year later, Sid Hatfield and his deputy were ambushed and shot to death by Baldwin Felts detectives as he was entering the court house in McDowell County WVA. on bogus gun charges. Both Hatfield and his deputy were unarmed, and Hatfield was shot 17 times. His assassination led to the Battle of Blair Mountain. Many union patriots have had to pay with their lives in the struggles for better living conditions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Hatfield