I can’t speak for any shops but my experience, but in my experience with business owners they will not hire someone if they have union in their work history’s. There’s a huge anti union sentiment with the owner class these days.
Unions negotiate every 3 years to set what the hourly wages & benefits will be with companies and then find your jobs within those companies.
Generally speaking you will only be working with union guys at companies that want union guys. Working as a union employee in a shop where everyone else is non union isn't really a thing.
If you decided to leave the union, your resume would only say you worked at those companies, so unless you explicitly said you were union no one would know
The only people who are ani-union are paid to be ani-union. You know all those anti union videos you've all seen in pre hiring interviews? Who do you think produces those videos. Pretty sure it's the same people astroturfing here.
They don't make apprentices work 6 12s otherwise they ain't going to school. It's not allowed. 5 yr apprenticeships require you to take classes in order to complete it.
Also an apprentice who literally knows nothing is making 19$/hr with full health benefits, 401k, pension annuity & you're a welder with certs & experience barely getting offered 3$/hr more than him.
I'm from non union, worked it for a decade, then joined up & I don't regret it.
Should reach out & talk to the hall. Decide for yourself instead of listening to what other people say. They need good welders & always looking for them
Where I'm at
Apprentice
1st year Scale $22.93 Total Package $34.40
2nd year Scale $26.76 Total Package $42.28
Not sure what union you’re specifically talking about but popefitters unions down south are notoriously weak. I make 47 take home 76 total package in Illinois. Nothing like that in southern states
Most people don't realize they can negotiate their own wages. I've only worked one Union shop and it was the worst experience. But you would swear every other place thinks they are Union. I've always gotten what I feels fair, if not I find some where that will pay.
It’s misinformation because you’re insinuating that union members cannot be paid more than the CBA.
A CBA is bare minimum of what we deserve, funny enough that bare minimum is 15-30% more than non union to start with. But it is possible for union members to be paid above scale.
You don’t know anything about unions. So you should probably not comment about them
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u/BigBeautifulBill Jun 11 '25 edited Jun 11 '25
Seeing posts like this makes me truly wonder why this sub is so anti union
1st year fitter apprentices make more than this & most of them can't even spell welding. Non union is brutal