I worked for a very large corporation with thousands of emoloyees that is unionized. My problem came about when a manager barked orders at me, super disrespectful, and threatened my job when i said something (it was a clear misunderstanding and i've had no interaction with this manager before this).
Shortly afterwards, this manager (who isn't even my direct manager but a higher up) intentionally gave me work i said i couldn't do. They threatened my job and i had a panic attack and i had to leave. Because i left without following a direct order from my manager i was fired.
I was told by several ex coworkers that this is normal for them to fire people as punishment and the union will get your job back in a week or so and you go on as normal. Quite frankly i couldn't accept this. The last few years has been hard for everyone, and having a family to support just scraping by is stressful. The idea that ill be fired and lose a week of pay because a manager wants to be a bully is too much. My union person's advice to me after i was fired was literally to beg for my job back.
After the week “off” i was gifted a meeting where the same manager just said “ya you're still fired”. 2 weeks later i got another meeting where the union rep and my managers boss agreed that i should get my job back without back pay. I said this was unacceptable that the manager crippled me financially and can simply do this again and again. It's toxic and everyone sees it. I wanted to retire at this company but one pissy manager can do this? Both parties didn't seem to agree with me but bosses boss said they would investigate and union rep said they would speak to their legal team and get back to me.
1 week later i have recieved no communication and i get 2 letters in the mail. A letter from the union essentiall says “we got you your job back we hope you're happy”. A 2nd letter from my manager saying since i didn't report to work several days ago i have abandoned my job. I have 48 hours to contact them. I messaged my manager and they said show up on monday or you're fired. Welk it's been almost a month at this point so i had to find another job which hurts me ever more money wise because it doesn't have the benefits i need.
TLDR:
Both my manager and union said they would investigate a predatorial manager and contact me. I was fired and both lied and just agreed everything was fine without telling me. And manager just sits behind their desk chuckling that they won, because my family's wellbeing is some sick game they play.