psycho joe, 1989 taught the unions that the people they really need to be afraid of is a sizeable minority of their potential members. Some would call such people potential 'heroes', and as much as we would all love to see a single union, that particular "elephant in the living room" will simply have to be acknowledged and dealt with before it can be achieved.
Despite that "elephant", I think it's do-able, but only if the younger people in the industry can look beyond the events of that year and similar, if smaller, catfights that have occurred within the industry since.