The only union member I have known left it. He worked in a company that had a lot of members of that union and often had union involved in negotiations. He however got very little benefit so left it. Then in his area they negotiated a pay rise for union members. Having left it He thought he'd missed out but no, he got the exact same deal as his peers. His boss told him they couldn't differentiate between union and non union employees. He never went back to the union but didn't lose out by doing so, saved his union fees.
Now his issue was that all those years of paying union fees he got nothing. Then when they did something he got it without being a member. Indeed he heard that the negotisted offer was what they expected to need to give anyway.
I have two jobs, one has no union representation, the other has strong union membership.
In the second job, I have been a member for two decades or so and have been involved as a rep at local, district or regional level for much of that time. You are correct that under UK law, non-members will always receive the same deal that members receive, but non members have absolutely no input, influence or vote on what is negotiated. But unions are not only about pay.
My role has received many benefits that I strongly believe we wouldn’t have achieved without union intervention. The union has taken our employers through the employment tribunal and court system several times over recent years to force them to right discriminatory practices. Some of those court victories have benefited not just members but non members and even employees in other industries and professions as they set precedent for other unions to follow. This legal support in areas such as age discrimination, unequal treatment of part time workers and alike has benefited me massively. I gained correct sick pay, correct holiday pay, access to my employer’s pension scheme, and more. All of which had been legal rights consistently denied to me until the union got involved. I have also benefited from protection against erosion of my terms and conditions, better pay increases and more. Other big wins have been in health and safety where the union have fought hard to implement proper safe systems of work rather than be pushed into accepting substandard PPE and unsafe working practices. I have no doubt this has already saved lives.
As a potential individual member in a workplace with no union recognition, I would be looking at the quality of the reps who would advise me. What training do they get on things such as discipline and grievance, what expertise do they have in health and safety law, what access do they have to legal backup and how can you as a member call upon it if needed. A union won’t and can’t win every fight but I would much rather have their resources behind me than stand alone. It’s an insurance policy and it costs me the equivalent of a couple of pints a month.
Edit - forgot to say - for the OP Community is a general trade union formed in early 2000s from a merger of a number of smaller trade specific federations/ unions. Iirc, the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation was one, I can’t remember the others.
