No. A cartel is a set of profit seeking firms in a specific industry who hold enough market influence to dictate price. It is the coordinated actions of an oli

No. A cartel is a set of profit seeking firms in a specific industry who hold enough market influence to dictate price. It is the coordinated actions of an oligopoly to manipulate the market. You don't need to own the full market, you just need to be able to influence the market as a whole. A union is, on a very surface level similar to a cartel, but unions are monopolies of labor, and do not represent the firms themselves. They are both attempts to manipulate markets through group decision making, but even academically, they aren't seen as the same thing. There is a reason that cartel formation is very illegal while union formation is a protected right.