A leadership which fights along with the members is a valued leadership, as long as the members have realistic expectations. The phrase realistic expectation, incidentally, is something to keep an eye on. Another way to look at it is to view realistic as anything you want to achieve. No leader, no matter how good, can single-handedly make the boss roll over and play dead. The members must be united and visible, showing the boss that they are supporting the leadership.
Employers do it all the time.
Ultimately it is just a great and healthy union-building exercise to challenge management's authority. An example of the latter would be a group of younger workers deciding that vacation allocation strictly by seniority is unfair because they can't get summer weeks, so they want the union to dump the seniority principle. By Bill Barry, director of labor studies at Dundalk Community College in Maryland.