Pershaps the worst evil promugated by the Reagan and Bush Administrations, especially the last one, and the current Republican Congress, is the defanging of the Department of Labor and the NLRB in its capacity to assure that labor unions are protected in the halls of business and government. It is not the economy that ruined unions, it is regulatory and tax policy. Lower marginal tax rates on the wealthy give investors and CEOs a strong incentive to go after workers and their unions and pocket the wage cost savings. Higher tax rates kill that incentive because the health of economies and companies is better served by a well paid work force, not wll paid executives, but give those executives the right to keep more money and cut they will. Good for fighting inflation, aweful for economic growth. Unions are most necessary because most labor markets are not free., Wages are paid in monopsoistic markets determined by hierarchies, not bargaining. Unions facilitate bargaining.