The average person hasn't a clue what unions have done for them, but lawmakers do understand, Which is why they (the lawmakers) want to undermine unions as much as possible.
I'm a supporter of unions. I've honored a picket line (back in 1967 the CWA strike of Ma Bell), and I've benefited enormously from union protections.
I was a telephone operator in the late 1960s. At the time that job was entirely female, and so it had certain drawbacks. But because of union protections, it was very good in other ways.
In January, 1969, I went to work as an airline ticket agent for an airline that no longer exists (Mohawk Airlines). Even though our job wasn't unionized, we got the benefits of other unions. The two that come to mind after all these many years are that if we worked more than 8 hours in a particular day, we got overtime for that additional time. Overtime wasn't dependent on the full work week. And if we were called in to work for some reason, we got a minimum of four hours of pay, no matter how long (or short) a time we worked.
I can remember more than once that those two provisions kicked in. There were many times when flights were late and we stayed well past our check out time. And I can remember one specific incident when, after I'd gone home for the evening, I got a phone call telling me that one of our flights scheduled into Baltimore (I worked at DCA, Washington National Airport) was diverting into DCA because of weather in Baltimore, and could I please, please go back to the airport (this was at about 11pm, I'd gone home about an hour earlier) to deal with the passengers arriving at the wrong airport. So I got in my car, raced back to the airport, watching our plane land as I drove down the GW Parkway, and made it to the arrivals area just as the passengers were disembarking. Another agent, Denny, had also gotten a call and showed up to help out. All told, I spent perhaps two hours dealing with this. But I got paid for 4 hours. And that would have put me into overtime for that day.
As miserable as that job could be, thanks to the union benefits that spilled over to us, the pay was decent. Perhaps beyond decent. I do know that it gave me an even better appreciation than I'd had when working for Ma Bell and being a member of the Communication Workers of America.
We absolutely need unions.
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. I'd like to 
every last effin' one of 'em!