"Union bans caffeinated coffee" ... wait, what?
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These headlines are obviously ridiculous, but aren't far from the honest misconceptions and FUD that have accumulated about Unions wasting time on frivolous things.
Unions are an old innovation that has led to the meaningful freedoms we now take for granted, like weekends, the minimum wage, and the maximum-hour working week.
If you frame a Union as a collaboration of individuals with a common interest, then you can see it's not much different to a Startup. Ultimately a Union/Startup is what the people involved make it.
It's natural as companies get larger and more distant from being a Startup, each individual is farther and farther from direct influence on what the company does and it becomes harder to contribute directly. Every company goes through these growing pains and has to choose how to solve this dissonance in its own way. One of the options in the mix is the formation of a Union:
... alternative ways of reacting to deterioration in business firms and, in general, to dissatisfaction with organizations: one, “exit,” is for the member to quit the organization or for the customer to switch to the competing product, and the other, “voice,” is for members or customers to agitate and exert influence for change “from within.” ...
In short - leaving isn't the only way to fix something broken - speaking up works too, and a Union makes that voice hold real weight.
If you compare communication/action within a Union to the multiple layers that typically accumulate in a company (think of how many levels there are between you and your CEO/Board) then the Member -> Rep -> Influence 'hop, skip, and jump' path is actually a short-cut.
When thinking of how a Union can contribute to solutions, think of it as a collection of people unifying around common purpose, often aligned with overall company benefit, but able to act quickly.
Good Startups never spend time on unimportant details, so why would a Union? What makes a good Startup? Ideas, Focus, and Action. For a Union? Same things.