As you might have gathered I am a member of one of the professional associations referred to earlier - for which I pay $800 pa for the 'privilege'. I also busted my butt to join - it wasn't a closed shop. That 'privilege' doesn't do very much except allow me to add a qualification to my resume. I certainly agree bad eggs are contained within all fields (unions to associations to directors to political parties).
Any 'lobbying' my association does is not on my behalf (I get no benefit when an accounting standard is changed) and they damn well better be behaving ethically and in the public interest (which is mine as well).
Certainly unions are legitimate. I think what has appalled people over the past few years is the exposure of some union officials self enriching themselves from union member moneys (hookers to OS trips to dodgy credit card expenses etc etc). The poor members that contributed the funds are just being ripped off by these scumbags. And on the same vein I have no time of sympathy for dodgy management or company directors that do their ripping off in other less direct ways.
