I think that there is an additional reason for the strength of unions here (although I am not a union member) and that is the general attitude that cooperation and negotiation are better than conflict and that solidarity matters.

In Norway David Cameron's "we're all in this together" phrase makes sense in a way that it plainly doesn't in my 'home' country, the UK. Home in quotes because I have now been in Norway for 31 years, slightly more than half my life.