Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would laws be better? I absolutely don't see how any law could be better than something the people did themselves. Comparable - maybe, but a law is usually way more expensive in the long run and not exactly flexible - and if you were from eastern European state you would know how unions work here (they mostly don't).
Generally in order for unions to exist at all they need a certain amount of protection from reprisals; union organising needs to be a protected activity. Surely the big Eastern European union success story was Solidarity? Although I can understand how unions would struggle to operate in the post-communist era.
This reverses cause and effect: in order for unions to receive any legal protection, they have to exist and fight for it (many members paying very high prices.) The unions precede the legal protection, not the other way around.