What are the unions meant to be doing ?
Should they have been active in the recent insulation debacle ?

In order to help the "common worker" ?

I don't see that a union would've had much business stepping in to the "debacle". This was the role of worksafe - an entity designed to help bust the unions by diminishing their power in workplace safety concerns. Worksafe were a major failure.

Also, government departments failed by allowing shonky inexperienced and unqualified installers who saw the opportunity for an easy buck to qualify for the rebate.
This scheme should have been open only to reputable installers who had a proven history of safety and quality.

The Indian tourists too were very quick to see the opportunity and they jumped on it, throwing down any old excuse for insulation material within an hour and then jotting down the max. rebate amount as payment in full.
There was very easy money to made. $1200 between a few people for an hour's work is very good money in anybody's language and nobody is going to call upon a union when they are getting that sort of cash.

The customers were no doubt generally satisfied with getting free insulation installed within the hour. But if I were them, I'd be getting the job checked out asap for any safety concerns.i