A union could encourage techs by stratifying pay per qualls. But after a point the tech performing more hazardous work should get compensated more. Or how bout the tech that operates more efficiently and saves the company money or dose? This gets complicated and is difficult to keep fair.
There allready exists a bunch of training resources: navy,college,plants have training Dept's,etc. There allready exists the minimum standards set forth by 10cfr.
What can a union do besides help keep track of qualls.or provide a very basic level of training that would be mostly useless for a lot of us. Classroom training for those who need help preparing for the tests would work.
At some point,early on, personal integrity and work ethic must come into play.
Now, as I have said before, I did not pull the rods in the sun. I am a pretty good tech but have met better. No one had to tell me to study for the tests once I realized I would have to take them. No one had to tell me to become NRRPT certed. I did these things on my own. I asked for and received help from time to time and would have had a lot more if this site existed back then. But I did what I understood I needed to do.
Some of us like the work we do for the works sake. Some of us like the learning for the knowledges sake. That being said,I will not work for free. But I will and do study and learn for free. I paid for NRRPT, not the company I work for. The people I work for do not care. The only compensation I received was personal, I proved to myself that I could still get my weak and lazy mind to plod into a haltering trot. And I am proud that I did.
All this being said, a union could help through a pay structure that encouraged more qualls,but not tests alone. A test by itself is not an effective indicator of ability. It only shows an ability to take a test. Some of the best techs I have known were terrible test takers. And some of the worst were very good at a test.
A union will best serve the greater number of techs by getting us more money through collective bargaining. It will only work if the union is pretty much the only place you can get a tech from. And the union cannot be selective, it will have to work for all of us, not just the "good" techs. More techs will become good techs if ,like safety,(had to get that in there) the culture is such that peer pressure forces people to be better. No union can or should do that.