US unions are like US healthcare, regulatory capture makes them suck. Unions working well in other countries doesn't mean it works well in USA. And neither party wants to improve the state of unions, democrats are on the side of union leadership while republicans are just anti unions in general, none wants to support workers on this.
No, I work in a US union that I'm very happy with. I have personally seen action on the ground preventing unfair discipline by management, passing people up for raises over personal vendettas, baseline quality of life stuff. I suspect that most people in a union in the US are quite happy with it.
Right, lots of people are also happy with US healthcare, it is tied to their job (just like unions) and they didn't have any problems with it so to them it seems to work fine. For now. In most other countries unions aren't tied to your job, just like healthcare.
I'm not sure what you mean by unions being tied to your job. I certainly don't know the intricacies of every union out there, but the ones I'm aware of take care of their members when laid off. The union members in my family receive their healthcare and their pensions from the union, not the employer.
Things like the 5 day, 40 hour work week, and not having our 8 year olds injured in factory accidents are only here because unions in the USA fought, bled, and died for them.
As opposed to what? Unbridled profit seeking? Too many people seem to believe their individual success is exclusively the outgrowth of corporate interests. Is it possible that employee compensation and corporate performance are opposed and maybe individual employees have limited capacities to affect the decisions of large corporations in their favor?
