Unionizing: An exception.

My one colleague who's a 2nd career ph.d. student studying Islamic mysticism and whose funding ran out happily signed a union card.

She's working as an editor at a magazine and they make the magazine run, but pay is $9/hour (!) and the pressure is so much from the bosses that you can't ask for a raise without being a troublemaker.

She said she's at the point in her life where she doesn't care, and that she was in a union when she was a public high school teacher and a lot of good things came out of it.