> If agreeing to union demands did not in some way cost the employer something, why would it need to be bargained out of them? It costs them control and social

> If agreeing to union demands did not in some way cost the employer something, why would it need to be bargained out of them? It costs them control and social status. A lot of people have egos that don't like yielding either of those, even if it's otherwise a win-win exchange. Middle management has a huge incentive to produce short-term resume-building actions at the expense of long-term gains, so you should be able to quite fruitfully thwart those executives and produce gains for both the company and the rest of employees.