sounds like you shoulda joined the union and you would still have your job
I was part of the union at one time. Which is another reason I feel they're shit. Certainly my local was shit.
Why do I pay them $ out of my paycheck every month for them to do NOTHING for me? For when something
does happen? Well, when it
did happen, they didn't do shit for me! I was a Class A driver for a time, and when I was demoted and actually laid off, the union did two things for me: jack and shit.
10 months later when I was asked to leave the union by my company, yet still receive the same amount of pay as any of the union workers, I did so. Holy fuck you would think I just got the union rep daughter pregnant. He called my house for 3 days, non-stop from 8am to 8pm. I was screening the calls after I'd already told him I was not interested in speaking to him. He still called. It was only when he realized he was losing my monthly dues, did he step up and offer to "help" me.
Why do I pay someone to do absolutely nothing for me, not protect me when I lose my position, not care about me and my bills or my welfare until I take money out of their pocket?
Then, why should I make the same amount of money as someone else in the union that does half as much? Files unfounded claims of racial discrimination, drops pallets off at the wrong stores without consequence while non-union employees get written up for it (because the union protects him, they're afraid to write him up? Unfair...one of the main stipulations for having a union is to be EQUAL, so that should apply across the board, yes? Including punishment!), decide they won't take that route that day because the route is loaded on two different trucks, when a person next to them has the exact same issue and is forced to take the route out, call in sick because they don't want to drive a 48' trailer, because it's too big for him and he doesn't like it plus it's too many stops to deliver, they're late to their stops costing the entire company $$$ in overtime....
...the list goes on. Numerous people I've known have ALL had similar stories, including my friend who works in the exact same company as I did.
The best part of the whole story is how one union worker felt he can filed grievances and have me and three other people laid off, get paid for having us laid off and fucks up the entire delivery team as well as the sales team and it's merchandisers forcing the higher-ups to restructure everything. This guy felt it's justified to have me and 3 other guys lose our jobs and affect out lives/families just because he didn't like non-union workers on the job.
4 guys (directly) and their families (indirectly) all affected because we were not union. We all did the same job to varying degrees and were paid the same yet because our title was different than his (non-union versus union) he disliked us. Seems fair?
Until you have been in that situation of paying dues to someone and then have had your life drastically altered because of a hypocritical piece of shit...you cannot say unions are beneficial. If you've had an injury, you have a bit more reason to stand proud...but from experience of having over 15yrs of union work and hearing countless stories on each side of the fence...unions have no place for people that actually do their job...and do it well.