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It's interesting you brought up trade unions, because they did actually exist within a piece of concept art for the Oddworld Movie, though from the presence of the Gloktigi I doubt they did much besides exploit the workers.
![](http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/togg/_data/i/galleries/Oddworld_Movie/Concept_Art/CAOM0003-me.jpg)
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Oh I love these... There's so much mystery behind their depictions!
When I first saw this, I couldn't help but imagine it was supposed to be for a scene where Mudokons are being lured in and recruited into "jobs for the good of the city" which would then result in their enslavement where they'd all be deported to the slums and the factories. Slavery, by manipulation.
MO made it canon (although I don't know if it still counts now) that Mudokons are brainwashed into being "laborers for a good cause" by the industrialists who basically farm their eggs by the masses. This scene looks like it's some kind of initiation process or transition that starts after a newbie Mud had come to the right age and completed his training. It must be like fulfilling their destiny, to them.
This is probably how Abe himself ended up in Rupture Farms. That looks like him in the far-right because he's the only one with the detail added for his headband, for some reason. You gotta remember, he thought he had a good job, according to the intro to the first game. So somehow, he got tricked into thinking he had free will - or at least that what he was being made to do was for the best.