I can understand in the past when they had horrific work conditions and people were being exploited. But now, people like janitors, retail workers and other fields that require little to no education are trying to or have successfully unionized.

Why?

You work in a field that should be paid low. There's already a minimum wage and you accepted the fact that you don't want better because you ended up in that situation on your own.

I understand for certain fields, like coal mining and other dangerous jobs, unions may still be necessary. But the people at food marts, you bag my groceries and make $14 an hour? What's with that?

 

Who determines what's "fair pay"? The employer? An individual employee doesn't have the ability to negotiate fair pay. An individual employee pretty much has to accept what the employer offers. If you have a market where the buyer has all of the negotiating power, prices are pushed artificially low. Imagine if a farmer had an apple that cost him $.20 to grow and there are so many apples available that the farmer can't ask $.20 for it. The farmer would soon be homeless. This is why farmers have co-op's. Same goes for a job market with no unions. When employees can't demand a pay that allows them to live a decent life, they soon end up on welfare or homeless.

I make several thousand dollars and hour for my employer. So, I make $26 and hour. Non-union heavy equipment operators make about $18 and hour. The fact that someone is willing to do my job for $18 doesn't mean I should only be able to demand $18 and hour for my labor. Even though my employer pays more for my labor, they still manage to be the largest paving company in Vegas.