It’s true that many well-meaning people are idealists, when they would be well served by dialectical materialism. Thankfully, a union is a materialist endeavour

It’s true that many well-meaning people are idealists, when they would be well served by dialectical materialism. Thankfully, a union is a materialist endeavour of people that understand no amount of asking nicely will bring about as much change as the threat of a strike. Members tend to be quite realistic and class consciousness in my experience. Why would union members assume the risk of being fired just to give everyone in the company control over the fruits of that risk? If you want democratic control over your workplace, you can collectively act together with your coworkers. That’s all a union is. The funds are collected to further that goal, often to protect workers from retaliation.