In Lukacs theory, the barrier that converts class consciousness into false consciousness is the class situation itself. In making the last point, Lukacs seems to oversimplify the bourgeoisie-proletariat dynamic and undervalue the working class. Alternatively, the working class is by his definition a commodity to the ruling class. The answer is that the worker is both a commodity and an owner of commodities. He owns the commodity of his labor-power, and that is what makes labor unions and strikes so powerful.
Labor unions have no inherent power except for the accumulation of the members labor-power.
However, I am not sure that it is so much the case anymore that workers are nearly conscious. In my view, the line between the working class and ruling class is blurring. While it is true that scientific knowledge of society has advanced hence Marx, Lukacs, this journal, etc. This is, of course, not to say problems of social inequality do not exist see last week s UN report. In addition, the means to spread the word, as it were including media, government, educational institutions, etc. are ultimately bourgeois run and owned with the interest of maintaining bourgeois ideals.