"...small business owners who often work doggedly for a lot less. And oh, they create jobs rather than cost them."
It was an observation, not an endorsement of unions. Everyone knows that management/employee relations is cyclic, and that when the cycle favors unions, business and often the economy suffers. The cycle now favors management.
Think of the cycle as releasing energy. If the cycle is stopped in favor of one group for a long period of time, bad things can happen. If it favors unions for too long, as it did in the 70s and 80s, businesses and the economy are significantly damaged. If it favors management too long, you have worker unrest and political upheaval.
It also should be noted the difference between those unions which can /will be excised because of a free market such as the UAW, Teamsters and the like, as opposed to the 'super protected, unions like the federally protected railroad workers that are tax-subsidized.
My next door neighbor is one such person - lives like a king, never gets dirty, and protected from cradle to grave.