If you voluntarily choose to be a member for "many years", that would suggest you received some type of benefit from it.
Bro, you have a serious problem with making assumptions. The trade and market I worked in for "many years" REQUIRED Union Membership. If I wanted to work and contract in that market,
I paid to play. There was no "Voluntary" about it, get it?
McKee Foods (Little Debbie) and Bimbo Bakeries (Entenmann) do not have union workers and they get their "lawns mowed" just fine.
Once again, here's a flawed assumption and evidence of your lack of knowledge of the subject. McKee foods manufactures almost 100% in Tennessee, my man- a "right to work" state with a strong sense of personal responsibility. There is no real reason to unionize - Jack McKee is a smart guy, and actually pays his people OVER union scale If They Merit It.
If. They. Merit. It. Read between those lines, mate.
And Entenmann's? God, now you're really showing your inner fucktard. Entenmann's had THE BIGGEST BAKERY IN THE WORLD in my old hometown, Chicago, up until 2008, 100% staffed by incredibly over-paid and troublesome UNION WORKERS. This was the MAIN REASON Weston sold the company and all assets to Bimbo...
WHICH IS A MEXICAN COMPANY, which promptly SHUT DOWN the Chicago and ALL other Union plants. You should have Googled your bullshit a bit deeper, mate.
Not all Hostess workers belonged to the same union - thousands of them were part of the Teamsters and they agreed to the offer from Hostess. The Teamsters also criticized the baker union for not doing the same and urged them to hold a secret ballot vote.
Let's not even get into the character of the Teamsters leadership, OK? Suffice to say their leadership will do ANYTHING to avoid slaying the golden goose, and their membership be damned.
But your statement kinda makes my point- how cool is it that a fraction of a companies' supposedly "At Will" workers can decide the fate of all? What should we call that? I call it fucked. But according to your next assumption, I'm just a...
Fanatical union opponents seem to be ignoring this though, maybe because it doesn't fit in with their black/white narrative.
But I'm not. I think unions serve as a valuable check and balance when they are working right, but they almost never do. There's too much temptation and corruption, and the basic operation of most unions is flawed imho- until a union agrees to allow merit calculations into the mix, they will continue to decline. The ones who have loosened up their strangle holds and actually become Partners with the businesses they serve are thriving, but they are few and far between.
I'll finish up with a caveat: this diatribe is about Unions- NOT Hostess, which was one of the most poorly managed companies in existence, and was largely run into the ground by management, as previously noted, so I'm NOT trying to protect those thieving fucktards. I'm just calling out the OTHER set of thieving fucktards, and giving the benefit of what I personally have learned about dealing with unions, which is mainly...
DON'T. Deal fairly and honestly with your people, and share the wealth freely- give them absolutely ZERO reason to even contemplate unionizing. You'll thank me later.
And if you're trapped trying to get a job or do business in one of the 27 states that COMPELS membership in order to work in certain "protected" industries?
Good luck bros