Many US unions only represent you if you're in a unionised shop, but unions can represent you without a collective bargaining contract. The only issue is that l

Many US unions only represent you if you're in a unionised shop, but unions can represent you without a collective bargaining contract. The only issue is that legal rights are more limited. The IWW is an example of a union that accepts members from non-union shops both in the US and many other countries.