Calpundit gets the importance of
unions for working people:
However, if corporations ? or entire industries ? are routinely allowed to bargain on behalf of a large number of owners and shareholders while workers are allowed to represent only themselves, no honest bargain is possible. Individual workers have no leverage in such a situation, and wages are inexorably pushed to subsistence levels.
Maximizing economic growth and minimizing subsistence labor should be the twin goals of any rich, modern society. That’s why unions are important, both to the workers who belong to them and to the health of society as a whole: they keep workers out of poverty and, as we saw during the middle part of the 20th century, are perfectly compatible with strong economic growth.