ARE UNIONS AN OBSTACLE TO WORKERS GOALS?

In today's world, a workers' uprising that goes beyond trade unions may become a cause for a grass-roots social-revolutionary movement based on self-organization. For those trying to bury the working class it is worth recalling some recent events: an armed uprising of miners in Asturias (Spain), a workers' uprising in South Africa (even a workers' council – a central strike committee – was set up, bringing together the strike committees of various mines). But all of these revolts were killed by trade unions. The same thing happened to the rather militant strikes in Greece and France in the past decade. Strikes in South Korea more than once or twice grew into factory seizures and armed conflicts with the police, but each time the movement was stopped by union officials who were looking for compromise and usurped the negotiations with the authorities and the owners.
 the need to rise against trade unions | libcom.org

Summary: Union leaders are increasingly distant from the everyday workers they claim to represent, with faster-growing pay and an entrenched ruling class, data show. Nepotism is in full force, union members complain, and the closest some second- or third-generation officials have been to a day on a job site is a class on labor relations at Harvard. With a small handful of persons controlling a multitude of related trusts, sometimes for decades, it should be no surprise the Department of Labor has found at least 89 cases where union members had funds embezzled by their own officials in the first half of 2013.
The Unions’ Own “1%”: Extravagant Pay, Nepotism, Government Indifference | Union Watch