Kickstarter’s Year of Turmoil

If you're looking for a white-collar example, I think newsrooms and film sets fit the bill. Read any account of working in newsrooms or on film sets before unions contrast it with conditions today.

Without collective bargaining, line managers face pressures to get more effort for less pay out of workers. As the employee, you are _bargaining all the time_ and you _bargaining alone_. This can be extremely stressful, particularly when market conditions for the firm are in flux.

With a collective bargaining agreement, you are not alone in your bargaining and when a collective bargaining agreement is in force, you get a break from haggling over the issues it covers. Managers are largely unable to exert downward pressure on working conditions, so they face less pressure to do so from superiors. This leaves managers to focus on those issues employees generally want managers to focus on: obstacles to getting the work done, smoothing over interpersonal differences, ensuring efforts cohere.

"I know unions are powerful forces for rectifying inequality especially around pay disparity. But, is there evidence that they improve communication between management and individual contributors? I would assume adding an extra layer would worsen things."

Unions don't add a hierarchical layer, though American employers often try depict them this way.

The typical arrangement would be for one of your peers in the workplace to be elected steward for a fixed term, during which time they ensure the terms of the contract (collective bargaining agreement) is enforced and advocate for employees that management have accused of failing to hold up their end of the bargaining (a counterweight to HR/labor departments which represent the employer perspective before arbitrators or the labor board). You of course get a collective bargaining agreement by electing a bargaining committee.