Did you joined a union?
How do unions work in your country/state/province?
What are the Pros/Cons being unionized there?
In Brazil, all workers are represented by some union, but recent legislation changes diluted the extend and the role of a union on works relations. A mandatory contribution used to exist, and was billed every year on may (may 1st being our labor day) and now is opt-in (by a hand-written solicitation forwarded to HR).
Besides having the right of being represented, unions here won't do much for employees that are not "sindicalizados" (meaning actively joined the union) both because those workers don't see unions as a good thing and because unions choose focus on more engaged working classes.
At the same time, it's pretty frequent to heard about anti-syndicalism (it's illegal here), so most workers interested in unionizing are afraid of losing their jobs.
More often than not, unions only get traction on public sector or in private sectors that does offer some public service (as transportation etc) and strikes as commonly organized by unions.
My point of view is that every workforce should be unionized, as to give the workers a active voice, but it's unfeasible to expect those workers to organize on such conditions where their jobs are on the line.
Pros/Cons being unionized in Brazil:
Pros:
- unionized workers tends to get higher wages
- law support
- unions provides representatives
- collective bargains can extends labor rights
- unions might offer cultural and leisure programms
- unions might have discount agreements in a myriad of services/products Cons:
- Losing your job (major one)
- anti-syndicalism
- getting called a communist
- you might disagree with your union political view
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