You can’t force wage rises across an economy. There’s only so much productivity to go round, only 100% of the pie. Higher wages for unionised industries come at

You can’t force wage rises across an economy. There’s only so much productivity to go round, only 100% of the pie. Higher wages for unionised industries come at the price of higher prices for those who consume the products of those industries. On a less theoretical point the US and Switzerland both have much lower unionisation than comparable countries and are much richer. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, none look good compared to their richer, more unionised neighbour.