[yankeedame]

From then on, if a majority of workers in a given bargaining unit chose to unionize, then that union represented all the workers and could require them either to join or at least to pay dues...

Also, thanks to FDR and his "Brain Trust" it was declared that unions could not compete for union members, e.g. if you were a widge maker, the UWMA (Union of Widget Makers of America) was the only union allowed, the only widget-makers union you could/must join.

Any and all completing/potential union organizations for widget makers {"The Widgetmaker Brotherhood", "The National Assoc. of Widgetmakers", "American Federated Union of Widget Makers", etc.)was strictly forbidden.

So not only was the American worker was forced to join/contribute to "the Union", he wasn't even given a choice of which union he joined.

[Remember_Salamis]

"In a study published jointly in late 2002 by the National Legal and Policy Center and the John M. Olin Institute for Employment Practice and Policy, economists Richard Vedder and Lowell Gallaway of Ohio University calculated that labor unions have cost the American economy a whopping $50 trillion over the past 50 years alone."