Even the nostalgic narrative of the past golden era of unions is, from what I've seen, mostly a creation of propaganda. The gains unions won for their members

Even the nostalgic narrative of the past golden era of unions is, from what I've seen, mostly a creation of propaganda. The gains unions won for their members were worse than zero-sum, because they merely redistributed from profit (shareholder income) to worker income, while resulting in collective bargaining agreements that reduced the flexibility of the labor market. The violence they were involved in was almost universally started by them, as illegal action that violated the employer's right to their property, and replacement worker's right to work at their site, was their main source of leverage.