AAviator,
Above you stated that the purpose of a Union was to protect jobs; unfortunately, too many individuals believe what the TWU has been shoveling all these years. The purpose of Unions is to negotiate BETTER wages, benefits and working conditions for the members.
Why does seniority within labor Unions matter? Is it only for choosing your hours of work and days off? Seniority matters because layoffs are sometimes required to preserve the QUALITY of the job. It is only with the advent of Corporate Unions that the QUANTITY of jobs became the rationale for their existence. With it came the preoccupation with the number of jobs.
Corporate Unions adopted the "scales of economy" production philosophy by cheapening the value of individual labor and artificially increasing employment. At the lower wage rate the amount of dues per person fell but the total dues income to the Union increased through the increase in volume.
Below are two references for Labor Unions and their goals.
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source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary
": an organization of workers formed for the purpose of advancing its members'' interests in respect to wages, benefits, and working conditions"
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
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source: Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2003
"association of workers for the purpose of improving their economic status and working conditions through collective bargaining with employers."
http://www.encyclopedia.com/searchpool.asp...x=35&Search.y=8
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