Reasonable healthcare, parental leave and vacation minimums were not acquired in the countries that have them by "the magic of a functional government" but by people organising in big enough groups to matter and bargaining with the government and employers.

~20% of workers in Europe are unionized. ~30% for Canada, ~10% for US. Canada's labour laws are very similar to US, only slightly better. It's not better than or even close to being as good as Europe.

This difference is coming from different culture and priorities. Lack of unions isn't why you don't have universal healthcare in the US and other such things. It's because the country's general culture and ideology works against both unions and social welfare.

You don't need unions to organize and demand things of the government. If people don't want to vote for social policies, unions won't make them want different things.

Virtually every European country has a higher unionization rate than the US, especially in the private sector. (Government employees are a huge portion of US union membership.) Unions provide a political countervailing force against business interests that helps ensure the existence of those reasonable, "magical" government policies. In some countries, unions are even involved in administrating those policies (such as in multi-payer health care systems with union-managed health plans).