[toyg]

You call it strong-arming, I call it negotiating among equals. When unions are involved, the original imbalance of capital owners vs labor becomes more of a level playing field, and the resulting agreements tend to be fairer than they would otherwise be.

Obviously, if you are a capital owner used to leverage your asymmetric power, this sucks. It probably sucks even if you're one of the few workers who happen to be able to be treated almost as peers (typically because of skill scarcity), since the union might concede something you enjoy in exchange for guarantees that you don't (think you) need. But for the workforce as a whole, collective bargaining is typically a net positive. Which is a big part of why Scandinavian countries have some of the highest quality of life scores in the world.