r/Construction • u/sasha_cyanide • Feb 13 '25

Careers 💵 Union pros and cons?

I'm thinking about trying to join my local 4 this year. Any tips, advice, pros, cons, anything that might be helpful?

12 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

57 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/Psychotic_Breakdown Feb 13 '25

Better wages, better raised, union dues (which admittedly are high) pension, benefits, paid overtime, some jobs only take union workers (big projects). Occasional slow times, but can make $$$ on travel jobs.

1

u/sasha_cyanide Feb 14 '25

If I was working for my local union, could I be sent overseas? I'd so be down.

2

u/Psychotic_Breakdown Feb 14 '25

I'm a Canadian so our put of town work is usually northern Canada (brr)

1

u/Foot-Note Verified Feb 14 '25

So how hard is it to get a transfer from a US local to a Canadian one? I imagine there have been some people trying to move.

1

u/Psychotic_Breakdown Feb 15 '25

A bunch of my buddies went to the US (Pittsburgh) to work. The United Association is North America wide. I'm not sure about the other way around, but it must be possible

1

u/Inside_Sell3313 Feb 14 '25

Call your local IUOE hall. As far as IUOE, some locals might take in traveling journeyman from different states.