And that, in my opinion, is where the unions totally fumble the ball and fully lose my respect. I AM a union member. I work in a closed shop and I had to chose between paying dues or finding other work.
Job protection should only come up when a guy is actually trying to do the job in some serious sort of way. It's a much more constructive hammer if you only swing it when there's a nail to be hit.
Where I work, if you have an accident, with or without an injury, you can either go to to the clinic and pee in the jar / blow in the straw or you can go home and stay there. If you go to the clinic, the union will try to keep you employed. But you are no longer an equipment operator. That's the trade off. The company (through no fault of its own) loses the training they have invested in you and you lose your pay premium ... dropping back to just about a buck an hour more than the temps make and kissing off your 'benefits' for 90 days. After a year (AFAIK), you can reapply for your old job. If sent to a rehab program, it must have been completed per the original agreement.
The union helps people kill themselves when they shield them from the job consequences of their drug problems. That's a shame. What's a crime is that they often help them kill others on their way out.
DAMHIKT, but I do.