And rightly so . My sister worked for a grocery store that had a union . Joining was mandatory . The only reason she knew it was there was because she asked about the union fee that kept being deducted from her paycheck . In four years at that store she never saw any sign that the union actually did anything . Second example I don ' t know if you are familiar with ubytewave ' s excellent stories but one of the things he mentions is that employees are not allowed to do things outside of their job description . Period . Even if it simply has to be done . Even if completing their immediate responsibilities depend upon it . Even if they WANT to do it , they aren ' t allowed to . There ' s a penalty attached to doing work that isn ' t in their job description . Speaking for myself that would drive me crazy . I ' ve also read but no longer recall the specifics and don ' t have a source that the cost of benefits demanded by the automotive unions have contributed greatly to the cost of cars in the US and also contributed to the near collapse of the car industry in Detroit . Unions can be great when all parties recognize that they are are on the same side and there is a good balance of power between the union and the company . Otherwise it just turns into a mess .