As the other answer says: "win the political debate" doesn't mean "everyone loves them." It's not a value statement.

It means "unions are highly encouraged, and companies pretty much have to recognize them."

And that's why the US are technically in a recession and the EU isn't yet, right?

I think they are referring the initial debate of whether or not to have a large union presence. In the USA that’s still a big debate, and the fact that there are large scale work stoppages in Europe only further proves the point that they decided having a large union pretense is good. After unions are established, then new debates will surely arise which seems to be what you are referring to.