Question: Whenever we are dealing with human behavior, there is no single answer that applies to every individual, but most union-represented employees have little difficulty "compartmentalizing," being able to satisfy both our bosses and our union representatives. We learn the ropes and we do what we need to do to get along.
In my experience, most people who are represented by a Union have no problem being loyal to their company and their Union in the proper proportion and at the proper times. As our text points out, the more satisfied an employee is with their job and their work environment the more likely they will be to support their Company. And, Unionized or not -- employee satisfaction (or a lack of dissatisfaction) is an important goal for Management.
Sometimes unionized employees who want to be engaged in their work and demonstrate their committed to the company mission and maybe even have ambitions to be a manager can have problems with their union-represented co-workers and union officials. Why? Because in many instances unions discourage employee engagement, they encourage their members to not work too hard or too fast, to even drag-out the job -- a long-standing union tactic for advancing job security. Union members are often, unofficially of course, discouraged from offering their ideas for improving productivity and from doing anything outside their strict job jurisdiction.
For those who want to be engaged and support their employer's mission, getting along with their unionized co-workers could be difficult. What say you?