Sure you can. Usually there’s a combo of rank+time. I know, I’ve done it.

Collective bargaining is usually around work rules and core issues. No non-VP+ individual has the ability to effectively bargain re health insurance.

All companies have pay scales. Even massive unionized bureaucracies like the Federal government have the ability to compensate critical employees or critical skills. (Although your definition of critical may not align with the entity)

I've been in three different unions before I landed in this career. Salary increases were fixed by time and position. Position was always based on seniority. No exceptions. You could try to transfer locations within the same company to try and get better roles (which is how most people got promotions, aside from waiting for people to die).

If you changed companies though you started at the bottom, guaranteed, because if you get moved ahead of people in the new company it creates an utter shitstorm. Management at the new job basically has to hate their employees and themselves to do such a thing.

This is the point that seems so often missed. I was union before I joined tech, and unions are poison to somebody who wants to represent themselves. They completely remove the option. It often forces people into either management or just learn to be happy inside the system.

It bothers me the ignorance of people who immediately think that having a union means "I'm going to get what I want."

No. You're going to get what the union wants.

People complain endlessly about HOAs and their behavior. Being in a union is the same shit!

By the way, in my professional adult life, there has never been a situation where there was something reasonable that I wanted in my employment contract and didn't get it. Just ask! I wonder how many people out there want unions and are also the kinds of people who don't ask for things they need.

And if you want to use unions to get you things that are _unreasonable_ that's bad for everyone.