It irks me because Conservative philosophy dictates that union pressure or other means of leveraging the federal government against your employer is out. No minimum wage either, uh-uh. You are expected to go out into the market and earn what you are worth.. It's simple and it's fair.
However, the other side of the coin (the one no one bothers to mention during these discussions) is that employers are expected to compete also, they are expected to compete for your labor.
They don't wish to do this, instead they want to stack the deck with imported labor. So, the net result is you have to compete, they (to a large degree) do not.
Simple economics says that when too much labor is chasing too few jobs, wages and benefits decrease. This is also why I am not big on throwing open to borders and letting others have "the jobs Americans won't do" The reason Americans won't do them is because employers aren't willing to pay to have them done. If they have a job that really has to be done, then someone will make a decent wage at it or the employer will have to do without.
That's the right way to get wages and benefits, not with union pressure.. but with more competition between employers.
^ Imho..