All of the rights we take for granted in our 'democracy' were concessions demanded and won by either the Trade Union movement internationally or campaigning political groups. It would never the case that a group of kind hearted Capitalists had a chat about the inequality staring them in the face and made decisions to change their world for the better.
The 8 hour working day
The 5 day working week
Obolition of Child Labour
Security of Employment
Pay Equality
Universal Healthcare
Universal Sufferage
Old Age Pensions
Free and Transparant Elections
and so on
None of the above were handed to us on a plate, yet so many of us take them for granted and sneer at the workings of the TU movement, would never blink before crossing an official picket line, failing to make it to the polling station on the day of an election...I guess we believe the Boss has our true interest at heart after all!?
I disagree. While the trade union movement may have campaigned for the above, in each of these cases they were lucky enough to be on the winning side. The reality is that in an expanding economy, there is competition for workers and so employers have to offer better terms and conditions in order to attract or retain employees. In time these conditions become standard and codified in law. It is unheard of for better conditions to be granted in a constricting economy (when trade unions are at their most active). This phenonema has been around since the black death and so pre-dates the trade union movement (the black death lead to a shortage of labour which in turn led to employers having to abandon bonded labour/serfdom).
Interestingly enough, countries which are run by trade unions - communist parties are effectively glorified trade unions - have the worst working terms and conditions in the world.