If unions never came into existence, what would today's work place be like?

Question

Would we still be mining asbestos without a respirator?

Answer 1

Maybe. Unions certainly did make important contriubutions to worker safety, but much of what they have done for the last 40 years is simply to squeeze as much from employers as possible. How else can you explain starting autoworker's wages at ~$50K?

Have you read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"?

Answer 2

Yup! We would just be very replaceable bodies filling a position, not human beings.

Our workers would have pretty much the same working conditions that most of China's working class do. They're going through what the US did a hundred or so years ago. They're beginning to become Capitalists, but haven't allowed Organization/Labor Movement that protects the workers.

In the recent US mine collapse, they wouldn't have been looking for six miners -- there would have been six hundred and much less effort in finding them.

Answer 3

Civil unrest would be never-ending, because the industrial revolution required labor.
Since there is a competition for companies to control costs, labor would not have been able to sustain life unless they formed unions and bargained for conditions and wages. Each time conditions became intolerable, civil strife would result.