I think the root problem with the union/corporation adversarial dynamic is that it takes time for a company who negotiates with reasonable unions to realize tha

I think the root problem with the union/corporation adversarial dynamic is that it takes time for a company who negotiates with reasonable unions to realize that advantage and have that be established as the dominant dynamic. Like it could take generations of workers to reach equilibrium, and if there are other disruptions along the way (e.g. technology changes) then it could take even longer. People understandably got impatient waiting for the fairly straightforward game theory to play out and so they started changing the rules. In a simpler world where companies are free to fire union workers en masse, you’d have to be pretty evil to oppose the right to unionize just to eke out the relatively tiny benefit it would bring in the short to medium term. It’s a much simpler explanation for almost everyone who looks like they might be that evil to actually just oppose things as they currently stand. Sort of the Occam’s razor of morality.