Many battles unions claim to have "won" were already transformation that were happening that they took credit for.

Also unions in the US have reprehensible tactics such as advocating - card checks for voting (intimidation), unfunded pensions, forcing nonunion members to pay dues, having closed shops, etc.

As for the conditions at Foxconn, I feel for the people - but often it's the best option that people have; i.e. it's better to work at Foxconn than be a subsistence farmer. The suicide rate there is 13.9 which is lower than Finland & Switzerland among many others http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_ra... and much lower than US armed forces @ 20.2 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2c662840-9b74-11df-8239-00144feab4...

In general, as a community gets richer work conditions improve. When a community first starts working it doesn't have access to the intangible wealth that richer communies have and thus they need to work more hours to make up for this deficiency. As time progresses the accumulate wealth - build roads, infrastructure, housing, stores, have savings. And so can afford to work less, as they work less they start sending children to school instead of the factory (housing and food can be earned by the parents), which then increases the wealth as they are able to work on tasks that require more specialized labor. The better working conditions achieved in America vs China are the result of capital investment and not unions.

Often times unions use their power to cement the position in industry, and use labor law to decrease competition (think of it as regulatory capture). For example there is the case of LOCHNER v. PEOPLE OF STATE OF NEW YORK:

"The true origins of the Bakeshop Act lie in an economic conflict between unionized New York bakers, who labored in large shops and lobbied relentlessly in favor of the law, and their nonunionized, mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant competitors, who tended to work longer hours in small, old-fashioned bakeries. “A ten-hour day would not only aid those unionized bakeries who had not successfully demanded that their hours be reduced,” Bernstein observes, “but would also drive out of business many old-fashioned bakeries that depended on flexible labor schedules.” The large corporate bakeries joined the union in supporting the Bakeshop Act. After all, it was in their economic interest to favor regulations that crippled the competition." (http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/14/lochner-isnt-a-dirty-w...)

Now this isn't to say that unions didn't accomplish anything or to say that they didn't have a positive impact in some ways; I just think that 1. unions get a lot of credit for things they have a mild impact on 2. people ignore all of the horrible things that they do

I agree capital investment generates wealth. Unions represent one means of distributing (not re-distribuing) that wealth - ensure that the labour used to transform x into wealth get a larger share of pie so they can for example afford schooling this increasing the speed of wealth creation.

Unions get credit for distributing wealth to the workers faster than owners of capital would do, and for defending individuals against exploration ( and the point isthat without unions (or other organised collective action) each of us is an explotable individual)

As for the bad things, I just ask what I would choose to do in that situation. HN top choice is start up a competing foxconn that treats workers better. But I fully understand the other thought process:

if the other guy has an army and enforces discipline it would be foolish of you if you thought individual spirit and the invisible hand were going to be any damn use

so for my money unions are just the more militant end of a spectrum that has co-operatives and workers collectives somewhere in the middle and Cadbury on the far end.

All of the spectrum is about how to distribute the new wealth being generated. It does not all have to go to the owners of capital ( frankly I feel the term Capitalism is misnamed. I would prefer unimpededmarketpricesignalling but is suspect it won't catch on:-)

[edit: can't spell on iPhone plus went off on a tangent. But I would be very interested if anyone knows of research on effect on blue collar wages of the massive influx of illegal workers into USA. This is something the UK as an island has little of.