This paper argues that the bilateral nature of labour-management relations is being obfuscated today by a unitarian management project. Democracy in the business organisation and the workplace in particular has to have an organic evolution and not through a motivation plan from above. Institutions of industrial relations including the union and collective bargaining can be the best via media for bringing in new institutions that are genuinely imbued with a participative and cooperative character. The paper reviews a sample of contemporary writings that focus on why unions still matter, new possibilities for unions and union-participatory approaches to management.