I will trust our younger readers to draw their own life lessons here, but the general model being described is that of the "company union." They were outlawed in the United States in 1935.
In 1935, with the Wagner Act, which guaranteed the right to unionize and to strike, also guaranteed several other rights. Among them, unions (and corporations, natch) are allowed to donate money, shops are allowed to be closed/union shop, and codified the NRLB.
