I worked in a unionized hospital for a year, and was miserable. I started at this facility after having been in nursing for 20+ years.
Having a union did nothing for staffing shortages, or getting pulled to other units constantly. And when I say pulled, we would literally go to one unit for 4h, then another unit. I was once pulled for 4 hours each to three different units! Seniority is nice when you have it, but I was on a unit where there were nurses who hadn’t worked a Thanksgiving shift for years. Newer nurses had lousy holiday schedules, and when we spoke out about it, we were told we had to make our way up in seniority to get good holiday schedules just like higher seniority nurses. The pay difference between the union job and my former job was less than $2 an hour; not worth it. What I most disliked about working in a unionized facility was the constant bickering between nurses and managers. I can understand fighting something that was affecting the nursing staff adversely, but even changes made to benefit patients was often a source of contention. As soon as an announcement on any policy change was made, nurses would suck into the med room and call their union reps. It was an unhealthy, stressful environment, and I was happy to leave.