From FB comment
Martin Glaenzer
I was a member, not by choice, for half of my 33 years with the college district. I saw more abuses by the college district against employees than the union against the college district. And remember, this was a public sector college; I would think it would be worse if it was private sector.
Walmart has had to pay hundreds of millions in fines because of abuse of employees such as overtime ‘off the clock’ and unpaid, part-time employees w/o benefits working almost full-time, and so many more. It’s obvious to me that the unions were made necessary because a majority of employees were without rights. And now the trend has reversed. Unions have become less common not because of reduction in the amount of abuses by employers, but because of the constant battles by employers to make the laws against employee abuse less effective.
You said employers get shaken down by unions. But I’ve seen many, many more reasons to defend employee’s rights than to defend the rights of employers. It’s the reason why there are so many ex-employees – the employers retaliate against them for blowing the whistle on the employer for violating the law.