More than half of Swiss workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements. That's much higher than in the US at least; not sure about France/Germany.
For example, in Italy most people have a contract which follows the collective agreement obtained by the unions for that specific sector (i.e. commerce, textile worker, metal worker etc) even if people are not part of any union. If you are a member of the Union you may get some extra legal help or such, but not a different contract.
From what US people say it seems instead that members of a union live in a separate world.
> From what US people say it seems instead that members of a union live in a separate world.
Not really. Because of the way labor laws work in the US, the unions seek exclusive representation over members within a bargaining unit, which means that all employees within the bargaining unit are members of the union as soon as 51% of the bargaining unit votes in favor of the union. That precludes the possibility of employees having the choice between two different unions to represent them (or none at all), which is common in most European countries.
It's pretty rare to have union and non-union members working in the same role (as opposed to at the same company, or at the same jobsite but under different employers), and even less common to have two people in the same role represented by two different unions.
If we look at union membership (which is different than being covered by collective bargaining agreements), the US (10%) has a lower union density than Switzerland (17%) and about the same than France (8% or 10%).
The legal framework is very different however. The local governments (cantons) decide by law which sectors are subject to mandatory collective agreements, mostly manufacturing, construction and transport. All companies and employees in those sectors then have to follow them. Union membership in other sectors is relatively low. Public sectors has specific rules.
