I don't think recognition by law is super important to that cause. I mean it's not like they're part of the system in that way. On contrary, they do illegal things like ask people not to come to their workplace. They threaten employers, demand change like workplace safety, ... And employers don't listen to them because they're required to by law, but because their production will grind to a halt if they don't. So ultimately a workers union just needs to be backed by the workers, or at least a good amount of them. That aside, we of course need some structure to things, so legistation might help. But it's not strictly necessary. And I don't think it even started like that.