An exchange with a Pro-Union sort

GayCynic: Once upon a time, Unions were an unalloyed good thing (well, mostly) in protecting workers from the abuses of late 19th and early 20th century employers.

Given later and current union practices and participation in power politics...maybe not quite so unalloyed.

Union Idealist: I see. It's OK for corporations to engage in power politics, but when working people do it, it's somehow dirty? Maybe you should try working at a Wal-Mart, where they don't even let you pee, and then tell me if worker abuse is somehow a thing of the past.

GayCynic: Not so much. Perhaps, in an attempt to be gracious, I obscured my meaning via euphemism.

I'm not awfully thrilled by the "persuasion of power" (i.e., subtle or blatant coercion, thuggery, intimidation) or even simple corruption - and that lack of thrill is fairly even handed, regardless of whether it is a corporate body or a union out being ... See Morenaughty...thus my view that unions these days are only moderately and intermittently in any way superior to the corporations they allegedly defend workers from...

And as far as either unions or corporations - in many states corporations are forbidden to contribute to political campaigns or to "encourage" employees to do so...I merely support extending the same ban to Unions, to keep the playing field level.

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Apparently anything less than unalloyed adulation for the unions is simply unacceptable.