Do you have a written employment contract?

[crazy canuck]

Sounds like a rather civilized way of doing things.

Yeah. It makes sense to me that the interests of workers are represented on a level of clout beyond the individual worker, to level the playing field somewhat. If this can be done in a way doesn't take away individual freedom to negotiate a better deal, and in a way that provides stability for employers as well that's pretty solid.

Sounds kind of like it would be easy to exploit by free riders; if one can have all the benefits of the union with none of the responsibilities, like paying dues, why join?  Am I mistaken?

Yeah, I would say you are.  In Canada at least compulsory union membership in workplaces that are unionized has a number of unintended consequences:

1) the union dues are used for things other than dealing with the employment relationship.  Often times those dues support political parties and advertising the individual union member may not support.

2) Non compulsory membership becomes irrelvant if everyone is subject to the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.  Indeed such a rule makes unions much more powerful then they would otherwise be if they negotiated collective agreements in isolation employer by employer.  This sort of sectoral bargaining has huge advantages for unions and their members.