Unions once served a solid purpose that was driven out of truly horrendous working conditions and exploitative wages, due to the fact that there was no other mechanism in law or society to address them. This was a positive and was necessary.
However, today we have laws that govern working hazards, we have entire agencies dedicated to it, we have laws governing minimum wages, minimum working ages, we even have laws dictating racial quotas and hiring requirements. In addition society as a whole is empowered with better means to focus spotlights on poorly managed or exploitative employers and such instances help keep the "norm" at an acceptable level. Unions are no longer providing the necessary democratic relationship between worker and employer in the market.
Now Unions focus more now on reducing productivity and lowering accountability while increasing wages despite market forces. This means, they arent protesting human rights violations (which at the time, was the primary concern, people were working and dying while working with little to no compensation), they arent protesting fair labor practices.... instead they focus on how an individual can be hired and then never be fired, which is not conducive to a capitalistic economic structure. This might be why there are hardly any industries thriving that were primarily employed by union workers, it also may be why we seeing municipalities with heavily unionized employee arrangements are failing and crumbling, in fact, most union industries are dying or have already died. Its almost as if the biggest legacy of Unions is how they have killed just about every industry that they once thrived in. This is why Unions are actually losing power and losing members... I mean, members that are unemployed because of union activities or agreements dont really provide much power to the union.
With a large part of the US workforce retiring, and the US economy not so dependent on manufacturing (or even that relevant), the union necessity is fading fast. The current trajectory of the Union in my opinion is only downward, especially as specific national needs continue to perform badly, (such as education and the effect of Teachers Unions)... so.. I dont think they will disappear entirely, but the nation isnt seeing that special necessity for Unions any longer, nor are consumers, or workers...
