The intellectuals discuss unions and other intellectuals, the latter to avoid any substantive discussion of the issues those other intellectuals are chatting about. [Whether or not the others are doing a good job is irrelevant, since their arguments aren't mentioned] It's the same with CT's own discussion of Wikileaks, which almost entirely ignored the information released. And of course Wikileaks was a trigger for the Tunisian revolution about which they're also saying nothing.

Unions do not represent individual freedom, they restrain it. The community takes precedence. Unions are conservative. Academic/technocratic liberals are forced to invent ways to get around that fact before making their (always weak) defense of unionization.

The working class can only protect itself standing united; as individuals they fall. The American culture of individualism makes this hard for people to accept.