Maud My position is that the union movement (in the UK and internationally) won valuable rights for all workers and that we owe them a sizeable historic debt for many of the employment rights we enjoy today. Your position is that we owe our employment rights to the then EEC. And somehow not the unions that worked towards employment legislation in the original Six and subsequent members? Not really sure that is a sustainable distinction, but heigh ho.
Again, don't tell me what my position is. If you are a professional in an academic field, as you are claiming to be, you will be aware of how to debate properly. You don't need to tell people what they think in order to clarify your own position. You simply need to make your own points and then prove them.
Unions were one contributor towards current employment rights. Governments are full of talented negotiators, qualified in the relevant fields. Unions are a very small part of what goes on in negotiation and in research. And right now, it is entirely possible that they are having a negative effect on the rights of many women, in that they protect overpaid niches of predominately males and seem to prevent challenging of the status quo. Particularly when it comes to equal pay for like work. They also work so as to prevent women accessing whole swathes of the working world, because right now in this country, unions are more interested in protecting the current rights of the their members, and certain classes of those members, than promoting open access to employment. That means that I, as a woman, have far more limited choices of employment open to me if I want to earn a good salary than a man with possibly less ability and qualifications. I see overplaying the role of unions as complicit in that.
In reality, its much easier for a clever female student to go into a profession which doesn't have a union, as its less rigid and more welcoming structure offers a more level playing field.
I'm not sure if you confused the health and safety legislation as giving individuals rights or not, but even you must be aware that virtually every country in the Western world and certainly in Europe have long had equivalent legislation.
Its all too easy to talk about things as they have always been, labouring under the assumption that they should always be that way, but it takes true vision to change things for the better.