What benefits do you get from your union, and what are the fees/responsibilities that go with it? I've heard this before, never really heard what the details are though.
Any overtime gets paid either in money or free time.
Working beyond 10 hours on a day requires authorization and is extra paid.
If doing crushes over lengthy time periods happens due to bad management, it can be reported to the government activities overseeing labor laws.
Any expat temporarily working in local projects gets the same work rights as anyone else, regardless of what international companies "think" about labor laws. Failure to comply can be reported to respective authorities.
Working over weekends requires special approvals and is properly compensated.
Support for fighting against management, when they "think" they know better than what labor laws state about worker rights.
Either you go alone with a lawyer, or get some muscle beyond you.
For example, even for simple matters like vacations, many people are actually unaware what are their rights, benefits, obligations and how much control the employer has over them.
Many just take the simple route and believe whatever their boss tells them, instead of checking what the law actually says.
I pay about 1200 a year. I have full health benefits, defined benefit pension, and 7 hour work day. If I want (and I do) I can work an extra 49 minutes per day, and take every second Friday off. I start with 15 days holiday, but after working there for 8 years now, I'm up to 22 days holiday (plus 13 stat holidays, and 26 extra days in lieu of those 49 minutes). Any overtime has to be pre-approved, and is paid out at time and a half. If it's over a stat holiday it's at 2.5. Never need to negotiate pay raises because pay is set for the position. Union negotiates the pay raises for cost of living increases. There are benefits and drawbacks, I wouldn't trade the time off though for more money.
For me it can be summed up to actually having a work/life balance and feeling respected as a professional compared to when I was doing about a minimum of 2h extra unpaid work per day with non existing holidays and sick leave in $SOUTHERN_EUROPEAN_COUNTRY.
It's easy to drink the valley kool-aid and laugh at unions when your economy is booming.
I pay £18/mo to be a member of Prospect, a non-party-affiliated union. The main benefits to me are legal representation in case I were to get entangled with my employer (not particularly likely). However I mainly do it to support their aims and campaigns.
One of the primary functions of unions in the Netherlands is collective bargaining. Every sector has sort of a "base contract", and the union negotiates basic raises and job perks for everyone employed in that sector.
