On hackernews most of the complaints I see about unions are people who've had direct experience with unions.
My experience with unions was they were shady, jobs were given out based on nepotism, work was given out solely based on seniority and most work you did for them involved kickbacks.
I have direct experience with both types of unions and it's super frustrating. SF labor unions whose members threaten you with violence over who can move your own property to your car: screw them. Harvard University union trying to get basic benefits for staff of which my wife was one: love them.
Every system is only as good as the people in them.
We must read different HNs. Most of the what I see is anti-union FUD from people raised on horror stories about unions but without any actual contact with them except for possibly being inconvenienced by someone else's strike.
