Unions come in all flavors. I belonged to a union for more than 37 years and overall it did a pretty good job, but it had its ups and downs--depending on who got elected to the leadership and who participated at union meetings and business. Our union was a very democratic union where the members had exclusive say about who was elected and what the union did. The biggest problem was that when things were good, very few members would attend meetings and too often, the radicals and Democrats would worm their way into power and try to use the union as an extension for their political aspirations. And what I absolutely always fought was their penchant to use the union treasury as a slush fund for the Dumycrat Party.
I was very active in the union throughout my working career, but for the last dozen, or so years when I reached a position where my job was more in the nature of supervision, some people in union leadership were not so sympathetic and I would say they were resentful. For the most part, these were younger folks who had gained a position of authority in the union and their attitude was that anyone who was "friendly" with management was not all that welcome in the union. This was really dumb, because the position I and a few others held was bargained and mandated by the union contract. I guess to be fair, some in the union envisioned the job mostly in terms of the pay level and maybe never thought much about the responsibilities the company would impose on the job. In short, my job and others who held similar positions was a gray area. We were not management, but we were supervisors and as such, we spent a lot of time in the office and at management meetings, etc. and to the rank and file workers, we were just too close to the enemy. That's not to say that I ever considered management to be the enemy, but I will admit that during labor disputes at times it seemed that way. I always kept in mind that I worked for and was hired by the company and not the union.
I do not live in a "right to work" state, but even so, no one can be forced to join a union. However, they are forced to pay a fee to remain employed at a business where a union contract is in force. That fee goes to the union to cover the expense of bargaining and enforcing the contract. For those employees who are union members and oppose political expenditures, their portion is refundable upon request. While I was a member, I always got a refund and a few others did likewise, because I absolutely would never support nor vote for a Dumycrat--ever. As near as I could tell, at least 40 percent of the membership was of like-mind.
It was always my observation that any business that didn't want a union around, could easily avoid it by treating their employees with respect and fairness. On the other hand, there is a symbiotic relationship with unions and management in some aspects. There will always be cases where some employees are very highly skilled and essential to the operation and because a union contract invariably dictates absolute pay rates, these employees are not able to separately bargain for the pay that might otherwise be incumbent with their individual skill level. Fortunately, the company I worked for recognized this glitch and while they enjoyed in many cases how they were the beneficiary, they also found a way to reward exceptional performance.
