union democracy

i just got back from the union hall after voting in the election...it was a pretty standard sort of thing...i was approached by a number of people outside the poll who were campaigning for this candidate or that...a lot of people were running unopposed which sort of defeats the purpose of an election, but this one was really about one race for a local-wide post rather than the representative from the various areas ( the local covers a few states so it is divided into local areas each with their own union officials )...it boils down to a case of the incumbant versus the challenger...outsider versus insider ( except, of course, both candidiates are complete insiders...incumbancy is probaly more the isssue here and in 2010 incumbancy may be a really difficult onus to bear...seems you have to be strong to remain incumbant)...most likely the only people who would be significantly impacted by a change of regime would be the aforementioned union officials in the local areas...as a rank and file member and an industrial worker to boot i don't see this doing anything to change my status as a non-person, except when it comes to insurance co-pay or union dues...speaking of which...when i got in the hall and showed them my drivers license they asked for a dues receipt...i get those in the mail, and i do keep them...but when i joined this organization i signed a dues check-off agreement which allows my employer to deduct my union dues form my paycheck and remit them directly to the union...my dues are automatically paid...i paid them when i signed the agreement...if the union cannot get my employer to remit them that is their problem not mine...i signed the agreement, i am a member in good standing whether my employer pays up or not...this legal fact held no sway and i was denied a ballot untill the election officials called the main union office in indianapolis to verify my existence, even though the name and address on my license mathced their records and it's my fucking picture on the license..can you tell i'm a bit irked? something like being asked for a dues receipt at a union meeting...up yours pal...look at your records...anyway i got to vote after i gave the people in indianapolis my social secutity number...it was special...you could get the idea that i don't like unions much from reading all this, but that's not true...i don't like craft unions because they are utterly anachonistic and belong to the century before last...they are run like businesses and leadership has far more in common with management than they do with rank and file...they also have virtually no clue about the needs and intersts of industrial workers...rigidly hierarchical...almost oligarchical...they are something less than responsive to issues that do not directly involve the craft side...on the whole i think i'd rather be part of the steelworkers...or even the umw...they may be no less hierarchical, but everyone started out unskilled on the floor or in the pit...a bit more egalitarian in approach.