I will add the asterisk that this whole discussion is extremely American-focused. Labor as an organized political force is much more meaningful and significant outside the US, and the idea that Labor is somehow synonymous with organized crime is bizarre outside the American context, with the exception of Italy.
In the US, not in any practical sense. But here in Europe, this is very much the case. Most countries here use some variation of the “tripartite” model, where there is a discussion group in which employers, labor, and the government (in the European sense) are represented. Note, each country does this a little differently. In some, the model is formalized in law; proposed policies and legislation are reviewed by the tripartite, and they issue a collective statement giving their opinion as to the workability of the proposal, balancing the three parties’ interests. If their collective statement is positive, this can effectively act as lubricant for its passage; if not, then the lawmakers can either reconsider, or can proceed with something they know to be higher-risk and potentially divisive. In other countries, the tripartite is more traditional and implicit, with each entity working separately to study proposals and express their opinions, and lawmakers then considering their views and incorporating them in their negotiations. In some cases, the tripartite’s discussions may actually generate policy proposals of their own, which are then communicated to lawmakers.
Here is one example of a tripartite organization which functions at the EU level:
You will note that the mission statement is vague, and that the responsibilities and authority of the group are not clearly articulated. Like most broad EU efforts, there’s a lot of compromise involved, which results in “softened” language that is intended to be inclusive and avoid alienating the various competing interests, but which is easily mocked by EU critics for being noncommittal to the point of being meaningless.
But the bottom line is that trade unions have a seat at that table. Labor’s interests are represented at the highest level of policymaking discussions. I work at a fintech company, and I am not myself a member of a union, but my company has a labor representative (it’s required by law) to whom I can go if I have complaints about management. In answer to your question, yes, absolutely, here in Europe, unionized labor is seen as a balance against employers when making policy.
And the idea that these European tripartite groups would open a seat at the table for organized crime is absolutely absurd.
So that’s my ultimate point: To whatever extent organized crime may or may not have some level of influence over union activities in the US, please look to our example to realize that this is not at all the norm, and not at all any kind of inevitable consequence of formalizing labor as a political force.
In the US, it’s probably more of a historical artifact, given that the Italian Mafia was heavily represented in organized-crime activities, and the Mafia does have a history in Italy of using labor groups for its ends, so it makes sense that they would import those same familiar tactics across the Atlantic. But that feels to me like a matter of historical correlation and nothing about unionized labor per se.