Unions in Canada are BAD.  They're generally okay in other countries, from what people tell me and I see and here, but here in Canada, especially ones headquartered out of Quebec, good unions are the exception rather than the rule.  Every year there's stories of union leaders earning nearly six figures while making people walk the picket lines on no pay.  They don't have to deal with the consequences, so they don't care.  Not helping things at all is government-mandated membership in some of them, which basically gaurantees they're going to be corrupt.