A colleague of mine had been trying to get the union chapter at his office to get their act together on keeping up certifications, staying active with helping employees, and modernizing their website.
They weren't having any of it. Instead, their office went unmanned since COVID, phone calls were not returned, and he could not get a hold of someone to answer basic questions.
Eventually, a union rep replied to him, accusing him of having an ulterior motive for asking questions. The result? He scoured the many union chapters hoping to find someone competent, and in the course of it he found that the Union HQ Chapter let their web domain lapse, meaning that someone could buy the domain.
Still being an idealist (I know, I know, it would have been so funny if he bought the site and did something crazy with it) he tried multiple times to get them to shape up. When they didn't he published an article on a very well-read Federal Employee site (the kind the union references for data to their members) about just how bad the union can be at their job.
He did not name names, but he did name instances with proof.
Think this is the end? Nope!
After the article went live he reached out to every union rep he could locate through their websites and emailed them the link to “a very good article on union rights and other employee resources.”
Among the results was that some of the reps forwarded it to all of their union members without reading it, essentially endorsing the article that said they were unscrupulous and lazy because they could not be bothered.
This week, union leaders were called together on important business. Was it to fix issues listed in the article? Not from what I've seen.
ETA: Realized that this might seem like a fake post, so am including the article. https://www.fedsmith.com/2023/04/27/told-you-dont-need-union-rep-supreme-court-disagrees/