I have worked non-union jobs.
I have worked unionized.
And there are pros and cons to both, but in the end I have chosen unionized. For the simple reason that I have seen far too many good people screwed over in non-unionized jobs. In the last non-unionized job I worked, I saw:
- a former OHL player who didn't want to play on the company hockey team offered a promotion in exchange for his services on the ice when there were others far more deserving of the promotion
- when a man of 50-odd years was hitting on a 20 year old fresh out of university, she put in a complaint of sexual harassment. Because the company needed the guy, they fired the girl.
- a co-worker was taking shifts taking care of his dying mother so he had to be there evening and weekends to help her out. When the director announced that we were behind on our project and everyone had to come in that weekend, my boss told my co-worker that she understood his situation and he did not have to come in. Within an hour my boss was fired for "not being a team player".
In all three circumstances my head almost exploded in absolute rage. I just saw far too many good people thrown under the bus while the slimier you were the better off you were. Where I currently work (systems designer, federal public service) I've not seen anything that near outraged me as much as those three cases. That happened in a span of 3 months. We do have other issues (near impossible to get rid of lazy employees - I've had to spend 25% of my time prodding one lazy ass to do 50% of his work; fighting my own union that I pay into trying to discipline someone who's behaviour is way out of line).
Add to that, I have seen my parents work 28 1/2 years for a company, needing 30 for a pension, being laid off and now my brother and I are talking about having our mother stay with one of us because she can't afford to keep the house. But my mother said she'd never work for a union... called them leeches... that worked out quite well for her.
The only thing I would consider would be going into business for myself. Which is difficult given my education... even as a computer consultant you are at the whim of the company you are working for. There is even less job security than at a private firm.
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