leezy
The work of recognition is a tough one. It is about defining your representative group. I am glad that you a a union member, whoever it is. If you follow up your chain of command, you will get to a general manager then director. This in itself defines your potential bargaining group. Ground staff is a diverse group with their own wants and needs within their individual departments.
The paradox is that every individual department would want its own negotiating rights, addressing with expertise, what its bargaining group wants, but Unite has swallowed up the majority of specialised unions. You have to rely on sector expertise, but again, an officer will be representing many different airlines at one time.
Unite has the power to strongly lobby government on employment issues, i.e. Working Time Directive, Minimum Wage, but the bigger long term picture does not help you today.
The union movement has moved on a long way since the much maligned 70's. You just have to look at the highest paid collective group within any airline. Most pilots would not consider themselves socialists, but they benefit greatly from an almost closed shop. This gives a power to negotiate strongly with the business. They also pay for this privilege though.
Still being in is better than being out IMHO!