Quote Originally Posted by Goofball
Health and dental benefits, salary, and accident coverage do not have to hinge on being in a union, they hinge on who you work for. Good employers will offer all of those benefits to their people. I have worked in non-union positions for the last 17 years, and my benefit package would shame those available to most people through their unions.
I can attest to that stateside as well. My pre-college post USMC careers found me in a few manufacturing positions.

1. Benefits were almost always better when not under union.
2. Benefits were more stable. Benefit packages under unions are used constantly as a bargaining tool and while one year you may have great benefits, the next year's negotiations will bring you a horrible benefits package as the unions overreached the previous year or negotiated for some other benefit this year etc etc etc.
3. Depending on the size of the Union and their affiliation you will be subject to group insurance which as you know will fluctuate in cost to you by the respective health of that group. At one position an aging group had the pay in cost for our benefits substantially larger than if we purchased our own policies privately.