Great! He’s part of a union and they provide for his benefits. And he’s a good reliable worker (which in massive demand in the industry rn), so if he gives his boss enough notice he’ll allow pretty much anything wrt time off.
Yeah, what we're talking about is not that. Union work is an entirely different beast. I'm talking about people not knowing from one day to the next what their schedule is going to be, informing their supervisor well in advance when they're available to work and still having work scheduled when they're not able to work and then being threatened to be fired if they don't show up. Complete shit show.
Any cursory examination of other cultures would show it doesn’t have to be this way.