That is not true. Unions totally dominated major industries in the US. Most of those that didn't outsource saw themselves become uncompetitive and lose market share to foreign competitors.
Public services that unionized saw costs go up and quality stagnate or decrease.
>There are plenty of examples of countries with strong unions, solid industry/services sectors and workers that aren't being exploited
Like what? Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany? Any countries without strong work ethics and a tradition of engineering excellence? As for the Northern European zone, how has wage growth been in there these past 40 years?
> Unions totally dominated major industries in the US.
Yes. They DID. And since their heyday they've been sliced and diced at until there's nearly nothing left today.
>As for the Northern European zone, how has wage growth been in there these past 40 years?
Not a lot. But that's the case for all of the west, and certainly also for the US. Meanwhile, quality of life and happiness in those countries has risen. The US, on the other hand..
That's ahistorical. The reason union membership rates declined is that the industries they dominated shrank. By and large the unions killed their own industries. For example, passenger rail service was bankrupted by the punishing collective bargaining agreements the Brotherhoods coerced passenger rail lines into.
>>Not a lot. But that's the case for all of the west, and certainly also for the US.
Yes, and a large part of that is that any investor knows that any large stable concentration of skilled workers in the West will unionize and began extracting above market wages.
That's why the only unionized sectors in the West that have seen significant growth are those paid for by the taxpayer.
Public services that unionized saw costs go up and quality stagnate or decrease.
>There are plenty of examples of countries with strong unions, solid industry/services sectors and workers that aren't being exploited
Like what? Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany? Any countries without strong work ethics and a tradition of engineering excellence? As for the Northern European zone, how has wage growth been in there these past 40 years?