I'm a software developer in a union. The union negotiates with the company to set the engineering levels & benefits.

Standardized benefits i think are very fair. Although it removes the opportunity to negotiate more vacation, etc in lieu of raises, etc.

The union also advocates for employees in cases of workplace grievances.

The union contract defines what benefits we receive, which means the company cannot suddenly decide to remove benefits from us.

The contract also covers layoffs & terminations which provides the employees some benefit.

Hydrogen peroxide powered rocket packs fly for around 30 seconds, because they have a specific impulse of around 125, meaning that one pound of propellant can make 125 pound-seconds of thrust, meaning that it takes about two pounds of propellant for every second you are in the air. Mass ratios are low for anything strapped to a human, so the exponential nature of the rocket equation can be safely ignored.

A pretty hot (both literally and figuratively) bipropellant rocket could manage about twice the specific impulse, and you could carry somewhat heavier tanks, but two minutes of flight on a rocket pack is probably about the upper limit with conventional propellants.

However, an actual jet pack that used atmospheric oxygen could have an Isp ten times higher, allowing theoretical flights of fifteen minutes or so. Here, it really is a matter of technical development, since jet engines have thrust to weight ratios too low to make it practical. There is movement on this technical front, but it will still take a while.

John Carmack