Having been in three different unions for low-payed, unskilled labor like being a warehouse picker is, I can tell you that the union was never on my side for anything and mostly served to help management pay everyone the minimum rather than based on performance.

And yes, the union reps got the best positions, the best hours and two salaries. The next best positions and best hours went to their friends.

The unions only stepped in for the most egregious cases but not in the way you might think: When Buffalo NY's Tops International Market fired their baker for literally urinating in the cake batter used to make the store cakes, the union stepped in to defend the employee because as part of the union contract employees were not supposed to be on camera to perform their duties. They fought hard to get their baker reinstated and won.

Outside of federal employment and outside of hollywood, where the strongest unions are anyway, the history of union activity in the US is quite unremarkable. It is most frequently anti-consumer and often works against the long term interests of the workers that it's supposed to represent.

Literally 99% of the time I hear somebody shouting support of unions here, they've either never been in one or they've always been the reps. Voices like mine, of those who've been in unions and got the shit end of the stick, get shouted down.

I would rather die than participate in a labor union again, for as long as I live.