Dude, I don't know how to say this other than we're having 2 parallel conversations that occasionally intersect briefly. We are saying many of the same things, but it seems to me most of the areas where we disagree somewhat are apples and oranges. What I'm saying you're responding to something else, and vice versa. Unions have had a LOT of effect on American jobs and American workers over the decades, quite a bit of it good, a WHOLE LOT of it bad, but in both cases their influence transcends just the companies that have unions. If you think management and ownership pays anyone outside their little inner circle a real living wage out of the goodness of their hearts then I doubt we'll ever come to an consensus.
Our government is supposed to have checks and balances to keep one branch from running roughshod over the other two, the economy is the same way. Unions have their place, just like ownership has theirs. When unions get drunk on their own power and the money they sometimes pilfer you can see that right? You want something done about that, right? What about when ownership fires people who have worked for that company for 20, 30, 40 years and just when they're starting to make a living wage and almost have their retirement worked out they get the pink slip and a nice, "we'll miss you but hey it's nothing personal, it's just business". Then they don't have a job and guess what, they find out that's not even the end of it, the company files for bankruptcy and/or moves to BFE and somehow manages to keep most if not all those people's pension money, because "those unions are just too damn greedy and we had to at least pretend to make a deal with them or we'd have had to shut down years ago". Then while the people who worked there for so many years are trying to piece their lives and hopes and dreams back together the news comes that the CEO and sometimes other members of upper management have a golden parachute they can ride to their next big gig that is an iron clad contract that can't be backed out of now matter how greedy the unions are and it seems like nobody who wasn't directly screwed by this scenario even cares, including half of this board. And if anyone ever talks about putting some controls on the other end of this thing all you hear is how high corporate taxes are (even though few of them even pay those) and then after hungrily accepting perks form local government, state government, etc., and using these loopholes to get out of paying most of what is left they talk about bolting for Ireland or BFE or some other place where they can be treated fairly and that there's nothing that can be done about them, after all it's THEIR money.
It's literally no wonder to me that this country is going straight to hell. If I wasn't living here too I'd probably say good riddance.