Yeah, your country is in dire danger of being overrun by Japanese invaders so what do you do...go on strike because you don’t like the working conditions. Imagine the horrible working conditions those dock workers would be working under if their overlords had been the conquering Japanese. BTW, when the Marines went ashore to Wellington, they left a lot of obscene graffiti on the walls expressing how they felt about the striking dockworkers.
Even though these were Aussies, they weren’t any different than the American unions. Of course, we aren’t all that far removed from Aussies. Yes, you have a point, the unions wouldn’t have mattered if the Japanese had taken over.