Working in Europe I have never been a member of a union but enjoy plenty of the achievements fought over in previous decades. Right now my strong market positio

Working in Europe I have never been a member of a union but enjoy plenty of the achievements fought over in previous decades. Right now my strong market position as someone in a sought after field and with some experience under my belt I am able to negotiate an individual contract that exceeds collective bargain agreements (that's possible in most companies here). Members of my immediate family don't have that luxury. They are hardworking and diligent people at physically demanding jobs. Yet they get treated way worse than I in my cushy office job. Individually they don't have much bargaining power but as a group they can get a better outcome and negotiate eye to eye with business owners. It makes sense to carry a few underperformers with you if the benefits outweigh the costs. In the end market realities still require the company to make a profit or nobody gets paid. But there is no reason why workers/unions shouldn't demand a greater share of that profit. Look at almost any German International company for a working examples. All Auto manufacturers are heavily unionized and still manage to be innovative and make a very healthy profit. During the Euro crisis in 2008 Unions and business owners worked together to reduce hours and workforce because everyone understood the dire situation.