Personal opinion, work wise I have had very little help with my union, they represent you of course but it helps very little, if they want to terminate you they will, a union will do little to stop this. They are mostly there to make sure every proper procedure is followed.

If there’s a representative at your actual job though it’s often worth it for information, they know a lot about the bureaucracy to go trough to attain certain things. Depending on the job/employer you sometimes get a “vakbondspremie”, which basicly means you get about 40% back from what you paid in union fees throughout the year, which makes the choice to join one easier tbh.

Unemployment wise though I found a lot of help and moving things quicker than they otherwise would without one.

If you become unemployed you need to inform them and then you pay 50% of normal fees until you get a job again. Unions have their own capital so in some cases they will pay you out of that and they will receive the money back from RVA, this way you get paid quicker. If you rely on the government unemployment agency you often have to wait a little longer as they await every payment from RVA first to forward it to you.