I’m non union electrician but I would tell anyone starting out to EXHAUST the union route before jumping into a non union trade. Unions like everything else have their negatives (idk many) but for people starting out it’s the way to go or else you will go through some shitty experiences of being taken advantage of and not knowing how to navigate through all the bullshit. The longer I’m in the trades the more I see the importance of having a collective in charge of advocating for the whole of the workers. If I was to start over I would have gone the union route first.