FDarn, yes she has about 25 years seniority and new hires would never get to that rate. While she still has that rate and the benefits, her union has given back a lot. New years day is now a straight time regular work day, and no matter how many more years she works her pension will no longer increase. Speaking of pensions, I started collecting mine last year. After working 28 years in the business, all but the first two in union shops and most of the years as Chief Journeyman/Meat manager, my pension is a paltry $430/month. As to holidays, when I quit my job as a meat mgr for a 12 store chain independent in a union shop to work for the big chain because it offered almost $2/hr more to be a cutter, I was low man and on the midnight to 8:30 shift. There were several Thanksgivings and Christmases when I drove from Phila. To DC for a holiday dinner with the in laws, and I then had to drive back home because after all the holiday ended at midnight and I had to be back on the block at midnight Thanksgiving and Christmas night. One point I am trying to make is sometimes you have to take a risk to gain a benefit. When I quit the independent, I ended up making a lot more money. Once they saw the world didn't end for me, four other meat Mgrs. made the same move, but because I went first, I had seniority on all of them. When I left the business entirely, I spent $10k of my savings to get some more education and training. The first job I took, I made quite a bit less than the $45k I made as a meat mgr in 1995, but I realized I was just starting. Now I make 4 times that and don't work nearly as hard and don't work weekends unless there is an emergency but even then it only means getting on the phone and laptop. I often tell the guys who work for me that what we do is not work, it's like going to school and getting paid. I just don't miss all those mornings including Sunday, of getting up at 3:30 and being in a 26 degree cooler at 5 am! The lesson I learned is work in a business with 45% margins, not 1% margins like the supermarket industry.