I recall VW put a single member of labor on their board; it broke the company as other members courted the vote of the uninformed labor rep, giving up perks until labor costs were bankrupting the place.

Companies operating in a competitive environment have to be pretty efficient. Optimizing a company for employee benefits is pretty much at odds with that. I know, they will all be more loyal etc. But that's different from lowering product cost and controlling profit margins. You fail to make payroll even one week, the game's over.