1995, less than 15 percent of American workers belonged to unions, down from a high in the 1950's of nearly 50 percent, though nearly all have benefited from the victories of the Labor movement.

I had the opportunity to join a union once, but decided I didn't want to make seatbelts anymore.

I think individuals speak up more now. I think it is harder to hide bad labor practices now. I still think unions have a place and am thankful they are there to fight for workers' rights.

Around 2,300 members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers left their jobs at 6 p.m. to begin a 72-hour strike, in a dispute stemming from the collapse of their employer, maintenance consortium Metronet.
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Metronet's management said it had given the union's members written guarantees that their jobs were safe. But the RMT Union countered that it had not received any guarantees from Metronet that there would be no job losses, forced transfers or pension cuts.

Pension cuts as well as job losses have been a big problem when large companies go bust here in the US. Maybe pension plans should be regulated like banks. Businesses pay into a fund (like the FDIC) to guarantee pensions after companies fail. Maybe it already happens, there is just not enough "insurance" to cover the pensions.

They do, sort of. They pay into the US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which is supposed to be sort of like the FDIC for pensions.

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The problem is that the rates aren't enough to cover the losses of late, and taxpayers end up taking over the pensions and bailing out corporations. And pensioners get a reduced benefit payment. Some of the losses are related to underfunded pensions. This is an area that probably needs better regulation.

The practice seems to be a feature of most bankruptcy plans, like Delta's for example:

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The PBGC reported in 2005 that pensions are underfunded by more than $350 billion:

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State government pensions aren't even immune from funding problems:

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The answer will be, though, to eliminate pensions altogether and move to defined contribution 401K style programs which benefit corporations and Wall Street. It's the corporate version of privatizing Social Security.