As an industry, they don't need monopoly power. Their main competitor, labor unions, has less market share due to regulations that only apply to labor unions.

In addition, the staffing industry lives off the idea of regulatory evasion, which has a favorable side effect of increased disposability. Both of these negate the need to pursue specific monopoly power.

If there's freedom in RTW, it can be found by applying it to all forms of third-party/indirect representation.

That kind of action is how labor unions ended up gaining power in the early 20th Century. If similar happens in the 21st, expect a similar swing.

It is also why Northern companies figured out that being reasonable to their own would get rid of 90% of such threats. By "winning the hearts and minds" of the population, it inoculates the company from many threats, without the financial or PR expenses of litigative hit-teams. Unfortunately, the lesson has been lost on the South.

The day that Google or Apple tries that stuff is when their competitors start winning significant market share from both.

In prior times, there was always a go-to industry that replaced the old. In current times, no such area exists long enough to be viable.

There's more manufacturing, but the quality has declined.

Agreed. Companies of Northern/Midwestern states figured that treating their employees with respect was the best and cheapest way to limit (and prevent) unionization.

Unfortunately, most of those states, save Ohio in the Midwest, have been overtaken by political interests that ramrodded the Southern way of business. To undo that will be like Hercules cleaning the Augean stables.

That's not so much Wal-Mart but a prevalent Southern mindset for any company wishing to do business in the South (or in sufficiently Southernized states like Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin). Volkswagen's intent to form works councils was met with political interests that intimidated enough people to vote against it - out of fear. Similar unionization efforts with other employers have received the same "kill it with fire, no matter how much it costs!" philosophy.

The Southern idea is that every resource on Earth and above must be expended to kill off unionization, then follow it up with an employers' union - like a staffing agency or temporary labor service.

On the other hand, RTW overlooks the employers' union (which can be a staffing agency, temporary labor service, or similar).

If it's a labor union, then yes.
If it's an employers' union (such as a staffing agency, temporary labor service, or the like), then it can be a condition of employment.

The VW effort was met with intimidation by various Southern political interests, along with the Tennessee state legislature.

On the contrary, Google should give the Teamsters a wide berth since "interesting things" tend to happen to entities that oppose them (which are legitimized by a Supreme Court decision). Such engineers would find themselves on the wrong end of things when their buses have otherwise unexplained low reliability.

That applies to staffing agencies, which are no more different than labor unions - yet don't get crushed. Same bad representation for the staff under them, bad contracts for the larger part, and nobody really gets a good deal in the process.

Why do staffing agencies, temporary labor and the like get a pass despite being a union in every function save for being an employer's tool of evasion? Perhaps they need their PATCO moment so that they finally die or evolve beyond benefits-evasion.

You're wrong. Unions are strong in the South, just that they're the ones that represent employers and only employers that abide by the South's playbook.

For example, Volkswagen talks about setting up workers councils, and the entire South's political interests go into an apoplectic fit. The Tennessee state legislature and various political groups intimidated them near instantly; if they unionized, Volkswagen risked losing economic preferences along with other forms of intimidation towards workers. If Volkswagen succeeded, everything and the kitchen sink would be thrown at them to financially fail, as done in the 19th and early 20th Century.

Fixed that you to correct for fact.

Someone has to do the maintenance for the buses.

They'd just rinse and repeat until every bus service is Teamster-organized.

This isn't the South where even the companies get intimidated for showing support towards unionization.

Praise Edward Snowden.

The IRS targeted political groups that brought in the most money. That meant that most of them were PACs with large corporate contributions, which primarily donate to Republican candidates. So naturally the Republicans made it into a fake scandal. Ironically the guy at the IRS who was at the center of the "scandal" was himself a Republican.