Across the United States in any Trade and almost any career, there is an option to join a union. There are many reasons to join a union or to not join one, depending on the trade, career, or union you may be joining. The main point of a union is to try and maintain power to the employees to ensure that they have proper pay and working conditions.
I work in the construction industry and although the company that I work for is not unionized, we work with companies (subcontractors) who are union companies. In the construction industry the unions will fight for higher pay, better benefits for the workers, and more time off or better conditions. When the company asks the workers to do something that may be unsafe or outside of your job description, the union they are a part of can step in and make sure they are not doing work that is outside of their pay scale or not ethical.
One of the downsides to being a union worker is that you typically cannot do work that is outside of your job description, which can lead to layoffs in slow times for construction companies. When workers are part of a union, they are also required to back the union and other workers, meaning that if the other workers decide to strike and the union is on strike, all of the workers have to stop work to strike as well. This can be good if everyone agrees with what is being fought for, but when workers do not agree with the strike but have to because of the union it is not a great deal for them. When in a union the workers are also required to pay “dues” which are a percentage of their check that goes to the union so that they have this bargaining power.
After doing my research on unions I would not want to join one, I would rather work for a good company that I can depend on taking care of me and treating me right. There have been studies done to show that on average in the construction industry union workers make about $8/hour less than nonunion workers because of restrictions and dues being paid. I also would not like to have to play by all the union rules and be able to make decisions because I want to not because my union tells me to.