I will admit I am not in favor of unions. I have family members that are in them, my dad is a retired UW professor, my mom was a teacher, my wife works in our local school district, both of her parents were teachers and her brother works for UW and her sister-in-law is a teacher. So I am familiar with them.
All that being said there is only one person you can count on to get ahead in this world. You work hard and make it happen yourself. Growing up as the son of two educators I was taught the importance of a good education. (I was also taught to be respectful to my elders but thats another topic!) While I attended college I spent my last 2 yrs working full time on 2nd shift as a machine operator in a local injection molding facility. A depressing fact of life came to me while I was working there. the guys on 1st and 3rd shift who ran the same machine as me told me I needed to slow down as I was making them look bad and was working too hard. When I finished college I was then offered a supervisor position with this company. Was this job handed to me because of my college degree? I'm sure that helped but it was also because I had proven I would work harder than anybody else. While I was working as a supervisor I went back to college and got my MBA at night. So I was working 10-11 hr days and then going to school for 3 hrs a night 2-3 nights a week. After finishing my MBA I moved to a Project Manager position, then an Operations Manager position, and now finally a Plant Manager position. None of this was handed to me by an outside organization, I busted my butt to get where I am. So now I guess I am that fat cat, highly paid republican with the new truck (although it's only a F150) that Indy dis likes. But I also work 10-11 hr days, (right now it's Saturday morning and I've been at my desk since 6:30), I travel for work (on my time) I do work at home from time to time, I have sleepless nights worrying about issues, and I shoulder a big responsibility for everybody who works in my plant to help keep it profitable so we all have jobs long into the future.
I guess my point is, I didn't rely on an outside organization to get me where I am or to bargain for me. And I know what it's like to work on the production floor. If you are willing to work hard, harder than everybody else, you don't need a union to take care of you.
Another quick note on unions. My wife works part time as a Para Professional at our kids school, It's a great part time job as she gets summers off and all holidays off with our kids so no need for day care or anything. Unfortunately it is a unionized position (my wife could care less about the union) and the union is battling with the school board right now about their contract. They are complaining because they don't get health insurance. The funny part is they all know there was no insurance when they took the jobs as they are all considered part time jobs. They also complain that other districts pay more for their para professionals. Then go work at other districts.
It's ridiculous, they complain about how other districts, within 15 miles, get more but none of them are willing to go work there.
If you aren't happy with your job or feel you should get paid more, then go find someplace that you will be happy. It's not my job to make you happy, it's my job to give you a clean safe place to work.