I will always maintain that there was a need for unions and they served an important purpose for getting the employee's voice heard while laws were being established around the employee/employer relationship. But there are enough protections in place for the employee to defend themselves from unfair practices. Unions have long out lived their usefulness and are now just a bargaining force driving up prices for the consumer so that their "gang" can obtain higher wages. They were always this, but at one point they did the other thing too.