I am all for fair wages and benefits. But, I am also for a reward system. Unions do not allow for rewards. They are the ultimate of Communism.
My first experience with a union shop was a grocery job when I was 14. My first regular job. I was used to working in other settings that were about getting the job done. I lasted two months at that grocery store before I went to a mom&pop shop where I did the job, got paid well for it, and as I gained efficiency I gained in responsibility and opportunity for both learning and earning.
Trying to discuss this in appropriate high school and college classes is a challenge at best. All public K-12 are union, and few teachers are willing to discuss the harm union can cause when abused. Public universities are a combination of union and non-union, with profs. and instructors being non-union, but having more of the union mindset.
TAB's description of the painters is something along the lines I have heard. And there is the one about drywallers: Their contracts (union and non-union) are so much per sheet. Full Sheet! Talk about waste! First, they do not use drops for anything. You need an 8" x 2' piece, you don't go to that 2'x8' piece you just cut off! You go cut it off a full sheet. Also, when done with a house in a sub-division, where you are going door to door down the street, you don't leave any sheets behind that will be counted for return (removed from your used and paid count), and you don't carry them next door to use there - You cut them all in half and toss them in the roll-off.
I will tell anyone that there was a time that this nation needed the unions. And, there are still some places where they are a benefit. However, the time for extensive union influence is long past, and it is actually becoming a drain on our nation.