Isn't the entire point of talking about this that it's not a sure thing? In my wife's case, the pay and benefits are roughly on par with what she's gotten at he

Isn't the entire point of talking about this that it's not a sure thing? In my wife's case, the pay and benefits are roughly on par with what she's gotten at her previous non-unionized gigs. Some things are better, some things are worse. Of course, every environment is different, but there's no way to prove/disprove what's related to the union and what's not. And, to play devil's advocate, you can't say for sure that her NON-union jobs' pay and benefits weren't indirectly affected by having to compete with unionized jobs (although they're the minority in her industry)