Replying to a message of TIM RICHARDSON to ALL:

 TR> A person can work hard, be a great asset to their employer,
 TR> and `earn' their employers added benefits and gratuities; or a worker
 TR> can be a `unionist', forced to pay a portion of their hard-earned
 TR> money to the `union', and recieve largess (a pittance) from the
 TR> `union'.

Many years ago I read about a guy that had been an OTR truck driver for
upwards of 45 years.  There was a break of two or three years somewhere
in the middle of that career when he was doing something else.  When he
was driving he'd always been a member of the Teamsters.  He finally got
to the point where he couldn't drive any more and had to retire.  He applied
for a pension from the Teamsters and was told he wasn't eligible to receive
one - after paying union dues for well over forty years.  Seems the rule was
that you had to be paying those dues for at least 25 *consecutive* years
and his 40+ years didn't qualify because of that break in the middle.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+