[munk-a]

I think part of the stark difference in how unions operate is due to the societal pressures applied to them. All of those "good" unions that would help advocate for employee education and protect workers who were unjustly fired were easier to brand as socialist and ended up being broken up as they failed to devote all of their power towards politics and staying alive. This ends up contributing to that image that unions don't do anything since, in the US, they are constantly maligned by politicians and the press - and since anything even loosely connected to communism (like, here, collective bargaining) has to fight an unhill PR battle in the hearts and minds of Americans.

Unions should exist to serve their workers and the fact that most public unions gain the most power by constantly funneling money into political campaigns is a real problem that just leads back to election finance laws.