Cutting government mandates could help unions better serve workers

Dressed in crisp, deep indigo jeans, a suit jacket, and a dress shirt, David Rolf — former president of one of the most aggressive locals of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — looks more the part of a Silicon Valley CEO than that of a union boss. And while the 49-year-old has brought several hundred thousand people into organized labor, he has little optimism that the business model of the 20th-century union movement will survive. “While unions can be a transformative force in the lives of workers, too often labor leaders seem like they’re trying to find a time …