Interesting. I was in a shitty but very safe (government) job as well. I also stood up, filed a grievance with the union, I thought we "organized" people for the cause, but when the investigators arrived, I learned that I was alone - only one other person testified. Well, "we" lost. They could not fire me, but the asshole bosses made my life miserable. I got some legal advice, visited a shrink, resigned, and filed a court claim for mental health injury. I won back pay, but was without a job. My former co-workers thought I was nuts, giving up a secure government job for nothing at all.
Guess what happened next. I enrolled in a graduate school, did some consulting for local gov't while my ex was waitressing - so we could barely pay our bills. A few years later we split up - she got Fulbright and then went to the New School, while I went to Rutgers, got my PhD and the current job at Hopkins. It won't make me rich, to be sure, but I am not starving either.
Now comes the funny part. They guys who backed out of the grievance and decided to stick with their bosses - they all lost their jobs when the place was restructured a few years later. They could not fire them, all right, but they made them redundant. One of them died in a DUI accident, another went back to Poland where he ain't making it either, still another one got a restraining order from his wife, enlisted and served in Iraq where he got wounded, still another one retired - I lost track of the others.
So it did pay for me to stand up.
Wojtek