On the eve of the industrial revolution, a secondary (often overlooked) revolution took place with it; the social revolution. The entire framework of the social structures that existed faced a massive upheaval, as the industrial revolution increased geographic mobility and made luxuries increasingly more available (while essential productions stagnated, but I digress). Among these social revolutions that took place, perhaps the invention of labour unions is the most influential. It is through these unions that the newly found industrial workers (and later, the field workers) were able to negotiate pay; it is what paved the way for the communist movement of the 1800s, and what paved the way from the remnants of serfdom and into the employee-employer relationships that we see today. Evolving from the idea of trade guilds which had persisted from the age of antiquity and into the (then) modern era, these labour unions (although primitive in structure compared to more modern implementations) share many similarities to those which persist today. The structure and role they played in organizing the workers have not changed over the years- but their motivations have shifted greatly.
In these early labour unions, their motivations was to make sense of the new system which had been laid out in front of them. The age of feudalism was on its downfall, and the new employment structure was littered with unknowns, even the fragments of capitalism that existed then look nothing like what we see today. Even still, these unions were heavily prosecuted, being largely considered illegal due to the threat they posed to the remnants of the feudal system and the infancy of the capitalist system which was slowly beginning to rise. Unsure of whether or not they would survive, in this era they focused primarily on defining the role of the worker in this new era. And these definitions still ring true today; the worker as the entity who produces, the employer as the entity who requests, and the consumer as the entity who buys. Naturally, these early labour unions helped in shaping not only the communist revolution- but also the very structure of capitalism.
After these primitive early unions, came the communist revolution of the 1800s. This is where the union became normalized- where the union became solidified. Inspired by the Marxist propositions, workers began to organize with a larger goal; the goal to control the means of production themselves. These unions became focused on the procurement of rights, utilizing strikes as the first line of defence. Many of these unions were directly involved in Party Politics, having affiliations with various socialist and communist parties. Few were capitalist or capitalist aligned, with the capitalists being seen not as enemies (as capitalism was still in its infancy), but rather as competitors in the realization of a better future for the workers. At the same time, it is important to note, the capitalists were beginning to build corporate structures and franchises, giving way from individual ownership and into the capitalists being a class of their own.
Following these eras we enter the renaissance of the labour union in the 1900s. Celebration erupted across the world for all of the Marxist unions, as the Russian Revolution came to an end and a communist government was employed to govern (the USSR had not yet fallen into authoritarianism at this time). And as a result, the unions grew more bold. They began demanding more; and so entered negotiation into their play book. Strikes would still happen, but they began being used as a last resort. The unions would enter discussions directly with their employer (which had largely become corporations by this time). This became a blessing, and a curse; while the negotiations allowed for more demands which benefited the worker, it also became an avenue for concession and co-optation, and thus as the 1900s roared on, the union began to fall prey to the very systems they were attempting to fight.
Now, in the modern era, the union lays as a corpse of its former self. Largely co-opted, they give concessions until their own negotiations provide no fruit. The capitalists have successfully commodified all labour, and so the threat of strike is no longer a viable demand; strike funds run dry fast, and the job-seeking population is too high. Furthermore, laws have begun to restrict what a union can or can’t do, preventing novel implementations or advancements without the risk of prosecution undermining everything the union works for. Yet, a path forward does still exist. The syndicalist structure has not yet been abandoned, but has fallen to the way-side in favour of larger unions (unions which the members are growing more displeased with). It reasons to wager that within the next two decades, the union will regain its popularity as people begin to embrace the syndicalist model (even if just in frustration with the capitalist union).