I've felt the same way about several employers, actually. I'm not anti-union in principle, but I was anti-union at specific jobs and pro-union in others.
The line is about whether management treats employees fairly. If an employer has reasonable policies, feedback channels, wages, benefits, etc. and employees have reasonable bargaining power, then unions are usually counterproductive. If an employer abuses employees and employees don't have individual bargaining power, than unions are usually helpful.
Union needed: Major local factory is the only employer in an area. (reason: no individual bargaining power)
Union harmful: SWEs in Silicon Valley during a boom cycle (reason: extensive bargaining power, good workplace conditions)
Amazon sweatshops and delivery services are, pardon the pun, prime examples of where unions make sense. Things like the Google unionizing efforts make no sense to me, though.
I have not worked for many employers where I've wanted to be in a union because I try to do due diligence on workplace conditions before taking a job, and usually employers compete for me and not the other way around. In retrospect, the place where a union most made sense in my career was as a graduate student.
It's because the US do not have unions covering the whole population, it's mostly segregated per industry. I'm part of an union, but it's absolutely not for my or in a confrontation agaisnt my direct employer. Howver, i have comrades (dockers recently) that had to strike, and this allowed me, a tech worker, to support them.
for myself, the line is usually drawn right around how a boss would respond to you stepping out for an hour to deal with something at a normal non-critical time (or leaving early, or arriving late). If they're prying trying to figure out what could possibly be so important that I dare disrespect them like that, its usually indicative of a severe culture problem between management and workers. If they trust me as a professional to meet my deadlines, then it's probably not much use to unionise.
When I was starting out my career, I felt similar. However, today, I have a rather higher bar. The older I've grown, the more I've come to believe employers should treat employees humanely.
I'm not quite sure how, if old me met young me, I could communicate the bug in my thinking back then.
The line is about whether management treats employees fairly. If an employer has reasonable policies, feedback channels, wages, benefits, etc. and employees have reasonable bargaining power, then unions are usually counterproductive. If an employer abuses employees and employees don't have individual bargaining power, than unions are usually helpful.
Union needed: Major local factory is the only employer in an area. (reason: no individual bargaining power)
Union harmful: SWEs in Silicon Valley during a boom cycle (reason: extensive bargaining power, good workplace conditions)
Amazon sweatshops and delivery services are, pardon the pun, prime examples of where unions make sense. Things like the Google unionizing efforts make no sense to me, though.
I have not worked for many employers where I've wanted to be in a union because I try to do due diligence on workplace conditions before taking a job, and usually employers compete for me and not the other way around. In retrospect, the place where a union most made sense in my career was as a graduate student.