transaction costs & bundling effects. Basically non-compete negatives for the worker don't outweigh the costs & downsides of forming a union -for just this iss

transaction costs & bundling effects. Basically non-compete negatives for the worker don't outweigh the costs & downsides of forming a union -for just this issue-. Forming a union, negotiating, membership, etc all have transaction costs. Also unions come in a bundle with negative effects too (corruption, forced to go along with decisions where you are in the minority opinion, etc). So if there was a super light weight union that only focused on non compete, then maybe it could level bargaining power. But since unions have a cost and come with downsides, it's not used in practice today.