Read all about it Unfortunately for you, me, consumers everywhere, and the union employees themselves, the latest warnings that the big unions are in trouble and perhaps headed towards demise is just another chicken little cry. This story describes in-fighting, political problems, and legal problems of the largest union in the US today. Um, 'scuse me, but doesn't this describe the state of the unions since 1920? I do not believe Jimmy Hoffa was fed to the fishes (or the stadium parking lot, as the case may be) because the Union's family harmony was as strong as the Brady Bunch in the last 30 seconds of any episode. Nor would this be the first time the unions have faced significant investigations by the federal government, nor the first time its members are dissatisfied with the results they receive. However, since the few remaining very highly paid unskilled labor jobs (liquor, longshoreman, car manufacturing) which remain in the US are strangleheld by unions, that no single person has the choice not to belong to a union to work in one of these union jobs, the death knell is a little premature. Indeed, the satisfaction with unions by their own members have been waning since the 70's. Other than a few exceptionally choice meats--such as longshoremen--the benefits union receive for their huge union dues is small. They have free health care, but uh, 'scuse me again you blind union members, you're paying $100 a month for this freebie, and you're starting to be able to do the math even though you went to California Public Schools. The members see that when they go on strike for the newest and future members of the unions (grocery store strikes) they lost big; the grocery stores lost little money (since they weren't paying fat cat union wages and benefits for so long) and people still shopped and didn't really care. Further, why should they care about the future snot-noses when they have a family to feed today? Retirement, the other sacred cow of the unions, is proving to be a lost ghost as well. While the unions have managed to previously brainwash their masses that their retirement plans are better, safer, blah blah, anyone with a friend in Finance 101 and a handy Texas Instruments calculator can tell you even in the most risky 401k plan where losses are racked up, the 401k retiree will be sipping frothy margaritas in Bali while you line up at the Walmart in Phoenix for the big sale on Shasta Root Beer. Again, in spite of their California Public Educations, the natives are growing restless at the math that proves their non-union peers frolicking with natives in the tropics. However, while the stranglehold holds, the unions have a furious infusion of cash and I doubt they will fold in my lifetime. But believe me, I'll be checking the US news from the sub-equatorial tropical beach when I retire.