one of the main reasons i left that job was because my first year performance review was pushed back to my second year, and the second one was never conducted. my bosses kept telling me verbally what a good job they thought i was doing, but they never put it on paper like i expected. not that i'm that much of a stickler for procedure, but i think it's helpful to have that conversation more than once in three years....

back to the unions though: i'm sure if i spent a few weeks at any workplace, i could find plenty of people who have progressed for reasons other than merit. let's not pretend that one only advances on merit in non-union shops. it's human nature to find the one bad thing about something and project it to encompass the entirety of every version in the whole country. just because there are some people in a union shop who may be getting a pass doesn't mean every single union in existence practices the same methods. in other words, if you can't pull your weight on the job, you are going to get fired, no matter whether you have a union or not.