The one and only union shop I worked in, the union got in the way more often than not. Quite often they wouldn't let a very knowledgable and experienced operator work in another department to fill in because someone in that department had more seniority. But, the 'senior' guy had ZERO experience on that machine, or with that part. So, we ended up delaying production of that part for 2 days until the regular operator came back.
The only people's jobs that I have seen the union protect are ons who should not have the job.
We had one other 'operator' was notorious for sleeping on the job among other things. The whole department pretty much hated him because he made them look bad. At one point he swapped a ruby tipped CNC probe with a 1.250" end mill and hit Start. That ended badly. Smashed the probe and ripped the part in half. Over 20k in tooling and casting gone in that one.
If I was in the same situation, I'd want to have a heart-to-heart talk with the employer. Things like, what are his plans for the next 5-10 years, what is the money situation look like, etc. Then make my decision.
That said, it would take a very large risk on the employer's part for me to stay with a union.
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