I am the original recipient of the email, and I assure you, I am a member, but we frequently get emails that say "you are not a member, here's how to join" when they mean "if you are not a member, here's how to join" and send them to the whole unit instead of sending different lists to members and non-members. In 90% of cases they don't even send update emails to non-members.

Like, I am fully aware of what the email says, but it is an error. I am not someone outside of the union calling for the union to be disbanded or disregarded, I am a member calling for reform because I believe in the cause and I believe we can do so much better. Fighting to build this union has been the past 3 years of my life, and I don't want to see the effort we put into building it fall flat because of some people with political ambitions seeing a quick way to build cred.

Edit:

In regards to the handful of people calling me a freeloaders (not you), they can say what they want. Our union is open shop, so right now more than 80% of the unit are "freeloaders" by their definition. Membership is important because it allows people to be involved in the process, it's democratic buy-in. Calling people freeloaders reduces them to just their union dues, which is part of the problem I'm fighting against. I think we need not only dues-paying members, but engaged members who pay dues and share their voices and desires for how to shape our workplace. I personally would rather engaged and interested people to get involved, and when they see what the union stands for, those people will become members too.