Employers in the UK would return to Victorian conditions at the drop of a hat without unions. In fact, we already see this with short term contracts which only benefit the employer and stop people having long term commitments and flexible working hours, which frankly in my experience means flexible for the employer and very little else. How many major companies in the UK on a regular basis, break Health & Safety regulations, end up in court being fined for accounting irregularities and are seen to lose cases where employers have been forced to take them to arbitration?. Why have we no end of self regulatory and regulatory bodies -because we can trust companies to do the right thing -no exactly the opposite -because most companies would try to get away with as much as possible- and that includes paying as little ad providing as little as possible for their employees. You only have to look at the drop in the number of companies providing a pension scheem to employees to know that profits come first and foremost. Do we need unions -now like never before.