[turtle]

I spent a little bit of time searching and the best I've come with is union dues are about 1 - 5% of pay. Some are set, flat rates across the board and others are based on things like hourly pay X2 + $5 or something like that.

This seems to be more in line with buying an insurance plan for your phone. In reality you will never use it but you would be glad you had it if you did. By and large though, you paid way more for the coverage than if you just went out an bought a new device when if breaks.

For a job this would be just leave the job and get a new one making more.

I found an article that talked about union dues being forced for certain employers and that if you are in certain states you would could object to paying the dues, but then you are required to pay the same amount out of your pay to a charity! That is crap right there.

From a purely financial perspective unions appear more like a pyramid. Lots of "little people" paying for fancy cars for those at the top of the union. I'm sure there are some great ones out there and all that, but the more I look into this I really have to question the value still.