Union Dues

So I decided to shake things up tonight and go to a union meeting at the hospital after my shift.  Never been before (which apparently I've been mistaken; more later) and was going to support a friend/co-worker getting elected as a Health and Safety Officer.  Turns out I didn't have to elect at all (someone else who was electing him showed up; I was just back-up).  It was nice, though, to hear a bit of union news; we discussed the cutbacks the government wants to make (similar to the Harris gov't some 15 years back.  Lets say if the gov't wants to cut back 30 beds, that affects many people.. including my job.  No beds, no mouths to feed, no job), how the gov't wants to slash housekeeping jobs and contract them out to an external company for minimum wage (worst. idea. evar), how the public views unionized jobs and how they really are, etc, etc.  I digress.

Since there were two of us there that were new (my friend and I) we had to be sworn in.  I had like, 4 people say to me with strange looks, "I thought you were".. which means I would have been to a meeting.  I said if it was, it would have been a loooooong time ago.  Anyways, we did it again just for kicks.

So... I almost got elected for a position with the union - Bylaw Officer (I had to hear first, what it entailed).  But there was some chatter, and by the time someone elected me, the nominations were closed.  "Not meant to be," I said.  Really, I'd probably escaped doing some really boring work, but, I would have gotten paid for my time in the meetings and if elected, I would have honestly invested my time in it and taken it seriously.

I've always said up till now that I hate unions, they're not for me, I pay union dues for nothing (yada, yada, yada) but when I go to meetings like tonight, it's nice to hear what's going on in the background.  We really do need people in the union (every day workers, not just officer positions) fighting for our rights.  Is that me?  Not so much.  I'm the ... strong, silent type.  I don't go to Parliament Hill and protest that we don't have this-or that.  We need the people that do and God love them for going, but it's not up my alley.

I don't know if I'll go to many more meetings.  I will probably go next month to elect my friend in and get him as many votes as possible, but... I don't know.  Part of me thinks it'd be good to be involved in something, but the other part of me thinks... I have no intentions of being a lifer, so why bother?  I don't know; with this union stuff, do you see me getting involved?  Am I the type?