This right is stated in The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights in articular 23 part 4 and says "(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." This isn't a union to aid business or consumers, why would workers pay dues for such a service? They pay dues so that the union will bargain on their behalf, hopefully getting the best deal they can for their members. The aggregate formation of capital can more then look out for itself most the time. Has government done a bad job negotiating contracts? Yes. I think you don't understand the purpose of a union. So are you going to decide which industries can unionize and which can't? That will be a fun job, good luck with it. I think letting the market work it out will continue to be a good alternative to central planing. I know it may not seem like central planning to you or most people, but labor is one of the most central resources in the process of production, aside from giving the workers the same rights as cooperation, the right to combine their resources and bargaining power without fear of retribution, I think that it is probably not in our interest to try and pick who gets and universal human right and who doesn't. It seems to me that it's probably best to err on the side of as much human rights as we can. Figure out what a unions duty is toward it's members and then assign blame to those that are really responsible for the situation. I know it's handy to put all the blame on the union's, we have developed a cultural bias against unionism, government spending and most socialist leaning programs in general. You probably think you don't have this bias, but it seems relatively clear by the way you are ready to assign blame on the unions and the workers for the state of public education that you do posses this bias. The ability to collectively bargain is important, I believe that it is a human right, you may not.