Driving into work just this afternoon, a young sound technician asked me if he should look into joining the #union (in this case, the @meaa). I rattled off all the benefits of being a union member, including all the "prizes", like cheap health insurance and discounted movie tickets.
I finished by saying that for me, joining ultimately came down to this: "If your employer doesn't want you to join your union, it's well past time to join your union."