[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

I started out ground level when I was 18 in a union environment. Shared the same sentiment as OP. I moved into ground level management and by 25 had 3 sups and 64 guys underneath me. I still felt the same way about the union when I moved into management. I always thought of myself different than them.

In a given night I could expect at least 5 call-ins, some kind of BS injury, drama. Everything you can imagine. I was tracking an enormous number of employees through various stages of discipline (soandso on step 3 for attendance but only step 2 for failing engineered labour standards).

I left that place 4 years ago and manage a non-union shop now. My guys are amazing. I went an entire year with my 16 staff members not calling in ONCE. The labour standards are harder here though and my guys make on average about $5-$6 less per hour than my previous job - a wage those guys had 4 years ago which I'm sure has only gone up. I've watched numerous benefits erode away. I've watched whole divisions of the company get outsourced to the lowest bidder or to some crooked middle-man company in an effort to root out what I can only assume is managerial-level petty fraud. My employees are capped at 2.5% increases this year - below COLA and only if they get the best review I could possibly give, something i believe is unfair in terms of personal growth.

All of this during a time (in Canada anyways) that the economy is booming. The company is growing at it's biggest rate ever and we're more profitable than we've ever been. I don't know what to think anymore because all I see these days is the complete and total erosion of benefits, wages and opportunity. I used to hate unions and for the most part still do but it's hard to watch this fairly rapid decline and I can only assume it's the same elsewhere.

Then I look at Americans in right to work states with no healthcare coverage and cringe even harder.


TLDR version: didn't like unions before, now I don't know what to think.