Unions and the industries in which they participate in vary drastically.
I think that unions raise the standard of living for everyone. The non union sector is able to price themselves below the unions, however, all the wonderful benefits and safety measures they use are a result of unions (IMO, and backed up by a few economic courses that I have taken
) We have several large union/non-union projects up here - but the only one that had a huge building collapse due to faulty construction has been the non-union. My dad had one large project where they had to go behind a non-union job and fix
everything they had done - to the tune of a few billion dollars
I think there is room in most job markets for both. Both have there pros/cons. We have never gone on strike but we did have a 6 day "information picket"
a few years ago. We knew that trouble was stirring for a few months before it happened so we were able to adequately plan. The crews were working insane overtime at that time anyways so many actually enjoyed the reprieve!