Trade unions? Here they are at least incompetent and prone to the Owner Will.

My oppinion about trade unions wasn't that good, either. Their most visible result were strikes of grunt workers and a lot of bullshit heared in TV interviews. My first job in a management consulting company didn't improve that picture. After all, I've spend a lot of time to learn my job, I'm everything but a grunt worker. I can talk eye-to-eye with my employer.

That slowly changed during the merger mentioned in Re: OT: memory to share available. The Betriebsrat (works council) worked closely together with the trade union (in that case, ver.di) to inform all employees about the merger and its consequences. Yes, the people from the trade union recommended joining the union. And apart from strike money, they had two very good arguments: free legal advice on labor law, and a legal expenses insurance for labor law included in the membership fee. ver.di and the other trade unions still emit with an SNR close to zero, and I don't agree with everything. But the legal advice service is great.

Alexander