Sure, unions are another solution, but let's be clear: A union only works if you were part of the union before you were fired unjustly. Without that, "too bad"

Sure, unions are another solution, but let's be clear: A union only works if you were part of the union before you were fired unjustly. Without that, "too bad" is indeed often the best you can do. I was once in the hospital with acute pancreatitis. It was unplanned, and would have killed me had I not made it to the ER. The company I was working for at the time "let me go" because I'd gone two days without showing up to work. Given that during those two days I was unconscious and nearly dead, that would have been impossible to do. When I spoke to a lawyer, they were very clear that the company had broken the law (FMLA protects people in situations like mine), but that fighting it would cost me a lot of money, and that there was no guarantee I'd win. I fought them anyways. I spent months fighting them, and spent thousands of dollars. The company ended up receiving a fine for less that what I paid in lawyer fees, and that's it. No payout for me, no resolution. The state felt the case was at least strong enough to justify the fine, but not strong enough to justify anything else. So, yeah, sometimes "too bad" is about all we get.