Actually, the social-democratic/Welfarist State appears to be in competition with unions, delivering roughly the same goods. Strong unions might inspire strong State efforts to compete, but even in the absence of unions so might the threat of revolution or anti-capitalist electoral success (as, for instance, the large Communist vote in France in another epoch, and the events of 1968).
Where there is little competition and no threat (the U.S.), the Welfarist practices of the State are correspondingly weak.
-- Gordon