*lives in/near a major aircraft town. Knows all about the pros and cons of unions*
Unions are a mixed blessing that dont really have an ideal replacement.
On the pro side, they ensure safe working conditions, ensure that work is properly distributed and that assignment-creep does not occur, wages are kept livable, et al.
On the con side, they cause serious problems when they become detached from reality, and demand too much from an employer. (see also, the situation with Hostess foods.) They also tend to become corrupt, with union bosses tapping the strike funds for petty personal reasons, et al.
These are all problems stemming from human failings, on both sides. (Typically, greed.)
Without fixing humanity somehow, there is no solution to these systemic problems. Unions ultimately do more good than harm, as long as they do not enter the "Hostess foods" end-stage cancer form.
What typically happens, is that even *WITH* corrupt union bosses, employees end up with more livable wages than without the union at all. Employer management tries to sell this fairytale that employees are better off without organization, and try to over-state the bad that is a corrupt union boss (which really is inevitable in the long term)-- however, if you actually investigate the situation you will find that the management are a bunch of lying whores, who just want to try and squeeze every iota of productivity out of you, then discard you before they can become liable for any kind of long-term benefit you might be able to draw from having worked for them. At every level, corporate management is out to simply dispose of you JUST before you become a liability, and to crush every dime of productivity out of you without compensating you for it. They are pathologically incapable of drawing the line between "Actually paying appropriate wages", and "Unprofitability", which is exactly why the Hostess foods situation occurs--- Management cries wolf *FUCKING CONSTANTLY*, so when the wolf is actually real, the union does not listen, and shit hits the fan.