Trade Unions (the modern incarnations) were transformed in the Socialist/Communist movement circa 1805 by Robert Owen (an Englishman) check out his history and you will see how it all began.
Here is what I believe on labor prices If I deem a job is worth 5.00 an hour then that is what I want to pay, if you deem it is not enough then you don't have to work for me.
If I decide my loaf of bread needs to sell for $2.00 than that is what I want to charge. If you want to pay $1.00 per loaf then you don't have to buy my bread.
If I hire you and Bill Gates to make bread for me and Bill manages to make me 10 more loaves a day than you do and I give him a raise for his increased output it doesn't mean you get a raise.
Unions screw up every bit of the above and increase costs that only get passed on to the end user anyhow it is just a power grab by a few elites using populist BS to get a "us vs. them" war going so they can profit off of it.
What you are arguing is what unions turned in to in some instances - not what they are to begin with. And your view of pricing is unrealistic. The market is supposed to decide those things, not you alone. You may think a job is worth 5.00 an hour to you. If the market says it's worth 7.00 an hour, then you either pay that, or don't do business. It may mean you have to raise your price; but, that's in your power to do within reason.. the market shapes that too. You may want 2.00 a loaf; but, that doesn't mean anyone is going to buy it at that. That is the reality. If you want cheap labor, you'll end up with cheap labor. You know it as well as I do - you get what you pay for.
You'll get no argument from me on your other example. If I work harder than the next guy, he doesn't deserve the raise I get. Nor should I be disowned by the union for working harder to help my boss produce more. And that does happen regularly in the UAW. I could probably list more abusive things than you have and in greater volume. I've seen it.
I know a guy that was docked a week's pay for picking up a monitor and moving it across a line less than 2 feet away.
The job of moving it was going to be held up by a full day because an electrician wasn't willing to come and move it, thus killing production at that station for a day. That is abuse.. any way you cut it.
That said, you are a third of the equation. You're workforce is a third and your client is the remaining third.
Each plays a role in you producing any product or service.
All have rights and expectations. Your take seems to be that only you have any rights in the matter. That isn't how this country works. Many things you say I can agree with. If you have someone who won't do the job, can them. Many businesses won't do that; but, then want to pay good workers nothing on the basis that the bad workers do nothing. Somehow, the good worker is supposed to suffer and make up for the loss of the work the bad worker isn't doing; but, the bad worker continues getting paid. And this isn't a rare happenstance.
Business does not have to be a war between employer and employee. But, it ends up being a war because there's always someone that thinks themselves more worthy of
consideration than the other - whether it is the worker or the employer. Both need to understand that neither is going anywhere without the other and then act accordingly. But that's what we're on about here, profit margin is more worthy of consideration than the defense of this country against attempts to subvert the economy.. that cannot stand.
If it takes a war to undo, the price paid will be a result of the greed of a few. Whatever one imagines the result will be to those few physically, their story for history will be one of Nero fiddling blindly.