Positives of joining a union?

noir_blood

I'm hopeful this won't get to political and such.

I recently moved to Long Island and have been looking for a job. Most of the stuff I've heard back from is for Customer Service Jobs at call centers, which isn't much of a surprise considering I have a lot of experience in that area.

One job that I interviewed for today mentioned that I'd be part of a union. Never being one, I'm wondering what the pros of being part of union would be. I'm already taking a pretty sizable paycut (their offer is nonnegotiable due to union rules they said), so having another 44 dollars taken from my check every month hurts.

Gilbert0

You know your pay structure, you know your dues so that's set up front. Raises are based around all members, not one-on-one so you know when / how to get a raise. If it's a large paycut, then it might not be worth it.

The Pros though, you have a clear hierarchical structure for help / grievances / job stability. You'll almost never be laid off, you'd be re-purposed to another position most likely.

In Canada, they're much more common (I've been in 4-5 in over 15+ years). I haven't needed to use the union support for anything but I know my raises every year and if I did have an issue at work, they'd help me.

MulysaSempronius

There is a lot of job security with unions. On the flip side, you sill be working with people who have job security, earned or not. It may be worth it in this economy, if it is a field you would like to be in for a while.