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<blockquote data-quote="Richard Turpin" data-source="post: 1200347" data-attributes="member: 13794">I think we've all agreed that it's a double-edged sword.For my own part, I have to admit to some anti-union prejudices brought about from my childhood in the UK.&nbsp; I grew up in a mining community and the Miner's Strike of '84-'85 caused nothing but misery for friends and family.&nbsp; It was turmoil and probably as close as I want to get to what felt like a civil war.&nbsp; One day having sympathy for the striking miners, and the next day seeing someone you know beaten and bruised or his house and car vandalised because he broke the strike and went to work cos his family was starving.&nbsp; The whole thing was genuinely unsettling and caused permanent fractures in the community and families (including my own sadly). Kids used to fight other kids at school over it, and they were innocent and knew nothing about what was happening.&nbsp; There is still strong anti-police sentiment in mining areas and older folk have long memories and still bring up past transgressions.I can't lay all that on unions of course, but I can't deny that I've learnt to 'associate' the word with bad things as well as good.&nbsp; I guess being human, I tend to remember more of the bad.&nbsp; The good things?&nbsp; Those have been very well documented and argued for on this thread and are mostly undeniable.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Richard Turpin, post: 1200347, member: 13794"] I think we've all agreed that it's a double-edged sword. For my own part, I have to admit to some anti-union prejudices brought about from my childhood in the UK. I grew up in a mining community and the Miner's Strike of '84-'85 caused nothing but misery for friends and family. It was turmoil and probably as close as I want to get to what felt like a civil war. One day having sympathy for the striking miners, and the next day seeing someone you know beaten and bruised or his house and car vandalised because he broke the strike and went to work cos his family was starving. The whole thing was genuinely unsettling and caused permanent fractures in the community and families (including my own sadly). Kids used to fight other kids at school over it, and they were innocent and knew nothing about what was happening. There is still strong anti-police sentiment in mining areas and older folk have long memories and still bring up past transgressions. I can't lay all that on unions of course, but I can't deny that I've learnt to 'associate' the word with bad things as well as good. I guess being human, I tend to remember more of the bad. The good things? Those have been very well documented and argued for on this thread and are mostly undeniable. [/QUOTE]

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