I happened to talk with business owners who praised the Union that affiliated most of their employees. In those cases, they were very satisfied that the Union would enlist, train and supervise the conduct of their members, and always have additional workers when they were needed.

I also read about Companies, municipalities, government agencies etc. that are almost bankrupt (or beyond) because of their unions.

While the perception may be that business owners or captains of industry are greedy people who are only concerned with profit, sometimes these roles are reversed. Many companies are born out of enormous efforts and risk, and then they grow employing – sometimes – large number of people who may unionize.

Union leaders sometimes get elected by making unreasonable promises to the union members, offering to extract more and more concessions from the Company owners. They run for reelection based on even more audacious promises, and demands on the Ownership (also called ‘Management’).

Like a rubber band that stretches too far, some of those companies (municipalities, cities, etc.) simply can’t deal with the load and collapse.

While it is well documented that unions played a fundamental role in advancing workers’ rights and safety, those challenging times do not exist anymore, thanks to government regulation, OSHA, the laws, etc. Many unions only exist thanks to their never-ending and ever increasing demands for more benefits, more pay, less work and less accountability. In some places (I.e.: public schools) it is impossible to fire somebody and promotions are based on seniority, not aptitude.

In those cases, the real greedy people are not the capitalistic owners and management.