I am 2 generations removed from employer tyranny. As my family and everyone in their region experienced it (a coal mining region) 2-3 employers exercised a complete monopoly of the region. The employers controlled every available job, every consumer good, every logistical/transportation aspect, the entire real estate market, and the currency (company notes). This created a situation where the employee-employer agreement was not a choice. If you wanted to survive, you worked for the company in control (and most didn’t have the resources to relocate to find different employment opportunities).
This pressure cooker created the necessity for organized labor to fight off monopolistic tyranny. Now, today’s America is certainly not an industrial economy as it was in the 20th century, we are a post-industrial service based economy. The unions of last century also made a lot of headway in setting standards and getting labor laws passed that protect people from the conditions experienced previously, but that doesn’t make us immune from the crushing effects of monopolies and wealth is being consolidated into fewer and fewer hands just as it was back then. Corporations and the super wealthy, arguably, have more influence over elected officials today than any other time in American history, always threatening labor laws that have been put in place. Maintaining the power of unionization is the most effective tool that workers have to fend off potential tyranny from extremely large and powerful employers.
Unions aren’t perfect, just like any other organization, but their basic purpose still remains relevant.
