My case was much simpler. I just wanted a summer job. That job paid minimum wage, minus a third of what I would have earned all summer in union dues and initiation fees, if I joined the union at the 30 day mark. I declined to join, quit after 30 days, and got a new job (requiring that I join the same union but at a different employer). The union disapproved of me dodging the 3o-day limit. For two big, muscular, pot-bellied thugs to threaten to break a kid’s arms over money shocked me, and I will never forget the evil of unions and of their democrat protectors.
It wasn't about money. It was about power. You threatened their hold on the entire industry (whatever it was).
did you have to pay it?