Originally Posted by TWA Fan 1
In the labor/management relationship, the workers have virtually no bargaining power without a union.
JetBlue NYFL: You listed an impressive array of benefits received by B6 employees. But what happens if B6 management decides to slash these benefits unilaterally? Without a collective bargaining agreement, which is nothing more than a contract between the company and the entity representing a certain category of workers (the union) there is no guarantee these benefits will continue.
Also, as has been pointed out, it is very likely indeed that without a strong union presence in the airline industry, B6's benefit package would not be nearly as generous.
This does not mean that actually having a union is necessarily beneficial in a given situation, although it does mean that
the ability to form a union is beneficial.
And, in any case, let's face it: Unions are really very weak. In the airline industry unions have been essentially powerless to protect workers anyway.
It is pretty hard to protect employees at a business that is losing lots of money.
There is also a positive feedback loop where if a business is losing lots of money (where pay and benefits are cut or threatened to be cut), employee morale sags, so employees become less productive, often resulting in the business losing even more money. At the extreme, labor disputes leading to strikes or lockouts can occur, which lose lots of money for all parties involved in the business.