Value of being in a union

I'm starting a part-time job this summer that I will be working year round in between college classes. The job pays $10.00 an hour, and I expect to work about 15 hours a week. To join the union I would initially have to pay $25 out of my first six checks followed by $15 a check on each subsequent check. To my knowledge all non union employees have the same pay and insurance benefits as Union employees. This is my first job where I would have access to a union so I have no experience with this sort of thing. Any advice?

Skip it. Your not making enough money to waste it on union dues. I've been in a union previously and unions will hound you to try and vote for certain candidates because they are pro union. That's one of the reasons why unions are nearly extinct. And a lot of laws came into place to help with workers safety and equal pay. So its better to keep your money, but they will probably bug you all the time to sign up.

From my experience:

Pay and insurance benefits don't have anything to do with the union, this is from your employer.

Basically, the union is there as your advocate if anything happens to you. If you are written up for an issue, suspended, fired etc, you can call your union rep and they can open a case to look into it to determine if you were treated unfairly and to try to save your job. If you are asked to do duties above your level, the union can step in and tell you employer you can't do it or demand you get a stipend (extra pay) for it.

In my experience, I was a full-time employee and I don't know if it's diff from part-time, the only difference with becoming a member of a union or not was to pay an extra $5 a month and being able to vote on issues. As a non-member, you still had to pay into the union because your position belongs to the union (easiest way to explain it) but you have no voting rights. Regardless, anything the union decides will affect your position whether your are a member or not.

Hope this helps.

For part time or temporary no.  For full time yes.  The union been helpful in my experience with salary increase and involve in disciplinary action.  

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I will skip the union because there just isn't enough value for a part time employee like myself.

It does depend on where you live and such. I imagine a good union will probably help you make that part-time job into a career. But since you are doing part-time, and may be going into a different career the benefits won't be as good.