In Italy, there's no statutory minimum wage, but contracts are negotiated by government-recognized unions via collective labour agreements per each work field.

They have too much power imo, and I'm not even against them having negotiating power! The problem is that they are often governed by politicians influenced by corporations, so their practices are only harmful for small businesses.

These collective labour agreements should only create a baseline for unions made by real employees, but they will do whatever they can to suppress these unions, especially if asked by whoever bought them.