Once again, it is based upon what you encounter. I think your generalization is too broad.
My exposure is with construction unions all over the country. In forty years I have probably dealt with close to twenty thousand individual subcontracts, both union and merit shop. I see less idiot militancy now then I did fifteen years ago.
The issue varies greatly depending upon which market you are in. I have seen many merit shop subcontractors with very poorly trained workmen because the subcontractors started out in the union era where they were used to union apprentic programs training their workforce and when they had to do it themselves and pay for it they simply failed in their management responsibilities to train their workforce. We now have local merit shop apprentice training in some areas, but funding and cooperation in getting the training done is always a problem.
Often, getting away from union work is just a way to cut wages and try and get more work by price cutting alone. That is the honest answer from someone who has had areas where he has “gone open-shop” and withdrawn from contracts in certain areas due to economic necessity and issues like the subcontractor-clause that prevented him from hiring subs he wanted to award to.
The instance I cited in the prior post ended up with 120 men and 12 million dollars in mechanical work being done at absolute top quality compared to what the non-union subs that froze me out were doing elsewhere in that market.
Do I love unions? Hell no.
I have had vehicles vandalized, death threats and faced illegal pickets and work stoppages with 150 pickets trying to improperly stop a concrete pour. My dad had a bomb blow up in his office entry fifty-two years ago as he was opening his office. I know the criminality and the marxist poison that flow throught the union central committees better than most here.
We just need to remember that not all people working in union jobs are tainted by it and american workers in general are our countrymen, deserving an honest individual appraisal.