By the time I left I was paying between two and three thousand dollars a year for the honor of calling myself a union member.  I was lucky . A number of unions charged way more.  You are clearly out of touch concerning what unions force their members to pay today.  Of course one can be forced to pay union dues. On many jobs once your hired your given a certain amount of time to start paying protection money or else they'll have the employer fire you.  With unions , it's as though you work for the union---not the company that hired you .   If union membership was so great , union membership wouldn't be in steep decline in America.  Union members need to face the facts---union membership is in decline . I've list some reasons why .  It's time to accepet the reality of the situation.