I think unions and companies have closer working relationships in Germany and Scandinavia The core of this is most certainly true. In North America there is an

I think unions and companies have closer working relationships in Germany and Scandinavia The core of this is most certainly true. In North America there is an extremely adversarial atmosphere between unions and workplaces. This leads to the natural result that neither side ever wants to give an inch (the slippery slope principal), and will always try to take an inch, the game leading to the scenarios described. There is no doubt that the union principal is sound for many professions where power is unbalanced, however the implementation is just completely broken here.