Though is pains me to say it, labor unions are dinosaurs destined for the tar pits, and the reasons are obvious. First, while they look good on paper, their actual practices parallel the sloth and waste of your typical government (just another layer of bureaucratic garbage in an overflowing landfill). They've spent countless hours thumping the protectionist lectern while the rest of the developed world busied itself with replicating past successes elsewhere in an effort to spread capitalism (which segues nicely into reason number two). In an expected paradox, unions are victims of their own prosperity; businesses can't keep increasing wages along past percentages without either a cut in raw materials costs (unlikely), or price hikes for finished products, as the only buyers of said products would be mid-tier union members! So, what's a company to do? Buy time by setting up the same shop in developing countries where you can cut labor costs by nearly 80%. Much to the chagrin of big business, this may only work for the next 50 years, as lifestyles change, wages increase, and labor unions become more prevalent. After that, things will probably evolve into an international game of ping-pong, where strikes, layoffs, and corporate reorganizings overseas will bring jobs back to these shores, and vice versa. Around 2070, the world's gonna look a WHOLE lot different than it does now.