I live in Hamburg, Germany and there is a major Airbus-site nearby. By US standards these employees basically live under "socialism" and their union definitly did not hurt them in comparison to Boeing. Quite the contrary, certain safety violations wouldn't even remotely happen here, as the employees cannot be pressured into accepting them as easily. You know, when your boss can fire you with the snip of a finger and potentially your health care is on the line, it takes a special kind of guts to still do the right thing.

Unions can can be bad if abused by powerhungy people, but the same is true for literally every other organization.