Collective Bargaining

Because of what's happening in the state of Wisconsin (Public Employees protesting a bill that would dissolve their collective bargaining right), I wanted to refresh my understanding of collective bargaining (which is the point of contention, not the reluctance to decrease compensation, the employees have agreed to a decrease). I was surprised that collective bargaining is part of an United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 23), that was accepted by many countries, including the USA.

Article 23.

• (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
• (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
• (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
• (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Personally, I find the Supreme Court of Canada's rationale for collective bargaining as a human right an enlightening perspective:

"The right to bargain collectively with an employer enhances the human dignity, liberty and autonomy of workers by giving them the opportunity to influence the establishment of workplace rules and thereby gain some control over a major aspect of their lives, namely their work... Collective bargaining is not simply an instrument for pursuing external ends…rather [it] is intrinsically valuable as an experience in self-government... Collective bargaining permits workers to achieve a form of workplace democracy and to ensure the rule of law in the workplace. Workers gain a voice to influence the establishment of rules that control a major aspect of their lives."

I like this perspective of "self-governing" because if collective bargaining doesn't supply this option, who ultimately will provide protections? The federal or state governments in the form of regulations?