>>1492727Unions are weak because society is civilized enough and the job market has become open enough that people aren't in most cases going to be completely destroyed if their job goes to shit. In the late-19th and early 20th century when people were desperate the unions acted like mafia, commiting vandalism and entering physical altercations to the point that companies were hiring private security and mercenaries.
Nobody wants to do that shit now. Nobody wants to pay fines, nobody want to have their income interrupted when a strike could last an indeterminate amount of time. People are already worried about shit as it is with furloughing due to the virus, this is similar to how a family with the main or only income being a union job have to deal during strike season.
The unions are a joke and don't provide anything besides disruption and taking protection money without providing anything in return. And they also incentivize corporations into worming around them. Manufacturing is one area this happens in, as is carpentry. I'm not sure railroads have similar options due to their locked-in-place nature but you can be sure that there are people whose only job is to research ways to avoid these 'seasonal headaches'.
