locals vary, some remain among most democratic institutions in u.s., others are quite bureaucratized...
aspect of local environment/experience lost at mid-20th century in many places was 'social unionism', as my friend bobbie recalls, united rubber workers in akron were quite active in local community and had lots of social/cultural events, this stuff largely disappeared while he was growing up, this happened, in large part, because likes of goodyear/ firestone began offering similar things ('happy employee is productive employee'), he remembers company 'letting' kids/families go up in helicopter and take aerial tour of city, point is that corporate resources could trump union in such matters...
corporate sector 'sold free enterprise' in 50s/60s via entertainment, recreation, culture, brochures and short films, public relations asserting what a 'good neighbor' the company was (such efforts coinciding with - and functioning as part of - red scare and cold war)...
at same time, new generation of labor officials would dismiss 'social unionism' (with exception of annual labor day picnic), to some extent, they did so because of success that companies had with 'community businessism' (for lack of better phrase), but they also adopted attitude of 'taking care of of our own' - which, in effect, often meant 'taking care of business' as well...
i've lived in same neighborhood for almost 3 decades, same house for 15 years, cwa hall is at the end of the block, i used to attend meetings and other events there, place has been mostly locked up and empty for a long time, i understand that cwa is supposedly going to the grassroots, to be successful, that must include some conception of social unionism, maybe there'll be some activity up the street again... mh