I agree with post #64 regarding the comments in posts 60 and 63. Its utter BS to suggest Unions make operations safer.
The Union as a special interest group, is one of the last remaining bastions of socialism whose days are numbered... i worked in both environments for sometime, and while without a Union you are definitely 'exposed' to all kind of sh*t, i found Unions equally dangerous running into the office everytime some member who deserved termination or demotion got himself in trouble, struggling to find reasons to blame airplane design, faulty SOPs, fatigue (even after 4/5 days off and flying 40 hrs a month), etc. Of course when none of that would hold water, then its the technicalities of the contract... guy didn't have representation during a meeting, letters written outside the allowed time frame, etc., etc. All Unions did IMHO and experience is give a good number of guys a free ride....
Its a no-win situation gentlemen as i see it ... with or without a Union its every man for himself at the end of the day.