I own stock via a 401k, and I'm broke as a joke. But I've also never, ever qualified for government assistance of any kind (unless you count a Homestead Exemption on property taxes as 'aid'). It's just that my job has decent benefits....other than the decreasing pay every year as they increase medical costs at a rate higher than my UNION NEGOTIATED pay 'raises'.

Face it...the entire country is corrupt. You can't even rely on a bloody union to even TRY to fight for you anymore....mine just rolled over and sent us out a contract to approve that says "Hey, we're keeping everything from the last contract, including the one time 1k bonus if it's signed, only this time it's for FOUR years instead of three, and still getting 2-3% pay raise every year even though we've not asked the company to cap off their medical costs at all so they can just claw back even that meagre amount of money." Months before the existing negotiated contract is even up.

Went several months without contract a few years ago. I'm personally willing to vote against this garbage and vote yes for a strike, and my work center has voted for authorizing strikes before.

*edit* Just so there's some laughable comparison points here because I don't want someone to go "Wow, a 3% raise is pretty good!" Sure...if you make 100k/year.. but I make less hourly than I can make DONATING PLASMA. Sure, I can't be bled dry for 40 hours a week, but if I could, I'd make more money doing that in take home pay. And that will still be the case after 4 years of stacking 3% raises. And you wouldn't believe the absurd breadth of things I need to know and understand to do my job effectively. It's changed massively in the 10 years I've been here, that's why our current pay is a joke. Even I would've said 5 years ago that my job was too easy for what I got paid, but not anymore. The amount of specialized skills that can't be trained for and information needed to know and retain has easily increased tenfold if not more since then, and pay has not kept up at all.

Nope, try again or name specific examples. I couldn't even get any assistance at all when I was working at Chick-Fil-A married, making less than 9.00/hour with one kid.

Earned Income Credit on taxes. That's about it.

Not sure if trolling, just a moron, or you actually have some kind of legit point to make that requires explanation.

*edited a few times. Trying to not be a total a-hole and leave some room for discussion if there's an actual point other than calling me a whiner, as much as I doubt it.*

In my position, working 'without a contract' means you're still working under the prior contract's rules and payscales....until the Union actually approves a strike, which has literally never happened in my bargaining group in the 10 years I've been here. Nobody was out of work, or at threat of being laid off by simple virtue of there not being a new agreement between the union and the company.

There are good reasons I've chosen to remain at this job, none of which, frankly, are any of your business. I will not validate my choices through some random anon. I've made the best choice I can for my situation and my family. My wife is working as well to help out, which I appreciate infinitely. Just because I can't escape my present situation in a fairy-tale like manner that you present (The one where I just throw out my resume and within a reasonable timeframe, have a higher paying job with better or identical benefits) doesn't mean that I cede my right to be unhappy with the people that are SUPPOSED to be on my side, yet never actually are. I can actually get out of my union, and pending the results of this contract, I may just do that, and then they can have their ever-shrinking group of people that barely do their job.....but I'll be damned if I'm just going to hand my life over to a CEO that makes *366 TIMES WHAT THE AVERAGE EMPLOYEE IN HIS COMPANY DOES* and say "Hey, I'm gonna leave the union and keep working for you, do you think you could find it in your heart to not f--k me over this year even though you've been doing that for the last 10 years WITH the union's help, kind sir?"

I'll at least agree with you that unions are corrupted institutions at this point, and it would take a massive change and far less risk-averse leadership than anyone is likely to see anytime soon, to make them what they should be. And by 'should be' I mean functional bargaining units that fight for the WHOLE GROUP, not a shill for workers that barely or flat out DON'T DO THEIR JOBS.

Or...they don't need them because they're the ones making the rules. Duh. I wish I had just left my original post, seems I was correct....but not going to worry about that anymore. Byeeeeee!