With good negotiators and a collective mind on the goals of the union, it would be great to help a lot of people. As an employee, knowing that a group of people has your back would feel comfortable and it would be nice. Also getting advocacy and possibly getting more opportunities in the company would be great. If the company is treating people unfairly it’s also nice to have a unified voice and do something about it quickly. Having a greater chance at a good retirement is also great.
However, that’s where the good things stop because promotions may be given to only people with seniority which I don’t appreciate. I think that promotions should be given based on the track record of the person and what they have accomplished. Also if there’s no skilled negotiator then the union won’t actually gain anything from existing. Also, I don’t want to have to work with poor employees just because they are protected. The most obvious thing against having a union is the fees that nobody wants to pay. The final negative reason is that I want to be an individual.
For the current career path I have, I wouldn’t want to join a union because the career already has a small number of people making it a very individual career in terms of obtaining success. The culture of the role is to work as a team and have everyone work as hard as they can. From what I’ve seen, people succeed by putting forth their best effort and bringing results to the company.
The only way I would consider a union is if I saw a lot of existing benefits in it and I had a trade job. I would be very enticed by great retirement benefits. If employees at my company were talking about unionizing then I would be convinced from hearing a very good plan and having great trust in the negotiator. Anything sloppy would put me against unionizing though.
