Why Haven't Unions Adjusted Well to the New Economy ?

[Samof94]

It seems like unions have fared poorly in recent years across much of the world being increasingly confined to legacy occupations such as civil services or large conglomerates who were already unionised. The new gig economy should be a boom to unionization because they provide the same kind of undifferenated mass work that the unions of yester did but they have been remarkaly unscuceful. Much of that comes down to legal obstacles such as being classifed in contractors but even in jurdistctions where such practices are outlawed unions have been remarkably anemic globaly.

Why is that ?

Unions have been long vilified by center left parties moving right 30-40 years ago.

[Samof94]

The shift to white collar/service jobs obviously ate away at their pool of members and potential members, which in turn begs another question:

Why did the US labor movement never seem to make any serious attempt to unionize office/clerical workers in the late 19th/early 20th century when they were organizing other segments of the working population? Why was there no "bank tellers union" or "life insurance salesmen union"?

In some countries, even professions like doctors and lawyers have unions and go on strike in certain situations.

India is notorious for striking lawyers.