When I started the job 6 years ago, the union was trying for change or at least keeping people active in union activities.
The place I work at is very political and no department likes to talk to each other so getting any change done is near impossible but the union used to at least try their best when an employee needed help with something. Since the pandemic they seem to have completely checked out, for example Doug Ford (Premier of Ontario) introduced a bill to limit wage increases to 1% a year. Everyone was upset by this and allot of people wanted to protest, make a statement, or something and they went to the union for help and every time they were told “its against the law to protest this”.
At the same time people were starting to come back to the office and people wanted a 4 day work week or a good office/home balance. The working from home is undocumented but the 4 day work week is in our collective agreement but when we went to the union to ask for help getting a 4 day they basically said “your manager has to approve it”. I even took this to the top management with the union present and for the whole process they said there's a 50/50 chance to get this approved. When we finally met the union basically stayed silent so of course it was denied.
In my last hurrah I wanted to take matters in my own hands and make a petition to show management that people want a 4 day week and I asked the union for tips, their response was “we can put this in our general meeting”.