The way the unions run themselves is going to guarantee their demise in the global marketplace.
The more flexible unons that try to avoid the harshest "evil management/poor workers" rhetoric, and actually bargain realisticly and make concessions in the face of economic reality will survive a bit longer, but the writing is on the wall for them too.
In it's simplest terms, what is a labor union? Most would say that a union is an organization of workers who banded together to collectively bargain for pay and working conditions etc.
It's true, that is a function of the union, but the key phrase there is "collective bargaining". When the union "bargains" that means that a union is a kind of BUSINESS, that is SELLING LABOR, to it's CUSTOMER, i.e. "evil management". That begs the question, what other entity on earth can be successful in the long term by abusing it's customer by selling what are rightly it's own resources back to it, at ever higher and higher prices, and does so by the threat of walkouts and strikes? And on top of that, it does so in a completely parasitic fashion to that customer, there is some HR offloading a union does like pensions and benefits, but the employers mostly still has full HR administrative burden for their own employees that the union still got to "sell" to them through collective bargaining.
It was a successful system in the first half of the twentieth century, where the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution, and World Wars I, and II, left the U.S. the world's sole economic power until the late 1960's Those days are long gone, and our competitive standing on the world stage can no longer withstand such self-abuse.
If the unions were serious about surviving in today's global economic climate, they would turn themselves into non-profit co-op outsourced labor firms. The "members" would be employees of the union itself, and not the business owners. Instead of collective bargaining, they would bid their labor pool out competitively. This would actually save businesses money, as they would offload the HR burden onto themselves as additional savings.
This model is already partly in place now. There are any number of for-profit firms that do this today, Manpower Inc. for example, and any other number of IT and BPO (Business Processing Outsource) firms that staff companies and governmental IS and clerical departments. I see no reason why it wouldn't work for auto workers, carpenters, or truck drivers. The difference is that these firms would be NON-Profit, and the employees/members still have their vote. This new kind of non-profit outsource union would pour any earnings back into the employee/member's salaries and benefits, and thus be able to actually put their money where their mouths are when it comes to all the pro-labor rhetoric, instead of financing it by twisting the arms of the owners through legal extortion.
The business owners/corporations can offload their payroll/FICA taxes, HR burden, and benefits overhead. Suddenly all these expenses now move into the loss/expense category, instead of taxable column. Their profits and competitiveness in the global marketplace increase, they expand. Amazingly, they can now "buy" even more labor from the "union", which in turn increases overall American employment. The co-op labor outsource firm (the former union) is non-profit, so they get certain tax-breaks which reduces their overhead as compared to a for-profit firm, and since they plow any "profit" back into salaries and benefits, they can be competitive in the labor market by attracting the best talent.
It makes sense, and it creates a much needed "loophole" that reduces the tax burden our government ridiculously places on employment. By eliminating the payroll tax on employers the U.S. would probably reverse the trade deficit as companies moved here, and see 99.9% employment within a year, and would likely recoup the loss through increased income tax revenue anyway. But if they don't, creating the non-profit co-op outsource union has great potential to be win-win-win. For the owners/management: They save money, cut overhead, and in turn get more competitive in the global market. The unions: They get to continue existing as a social/political force in America, maybe even grow, unlike now. And finally, the workers: They stand a better chance to keep their jobs, and the non-profit outsource union pours any profit into their paychecks.
Where am I wrong with this?