Isn't one of the goals of a union to develop superior skill sets for its members there by making them more efficient and more valuable as an employee?
That is a myth. In REALITY, and I speak from personal experience in the construction industry, Union labor merely adds to the cost and length of time it takes to complete a project.
I have NEVER seen any BETTER quality in the work between the construction I saw in the South and that I which saw in the Northeast.
The ONLY real difference was the doubling of the cost to build, the doubling of the time it took to build; the intimidation of laborers on the job site by Business Administrators from the Union (in their very expensive suits) and the FACT that these union workers worked specific and LESS hours.
They came to work at 7:00 a.m. and left exactly at 3:30 p.m. with THREE breaks taking with them the electrical breakers to ensure no one would work illegally after hours.
In the South, they would work from 7:00 a.m. till it got dark and in some cases, when the schedule demanded it, after dark. They didn't have specific break times and took lunch when the opportunity arose. They made MORE money by getting the work done and moving to the next job.
Unfortunately, the UNION leadership has been the Unions own worst enemies and have turned the UNION labor into more of an entitlement than a trained efficient work force and actually encourage workers to work at slower pace to ensure work and more labor requirements.
I worked for the machinists union as a young man and I speaking from personal experience; I was constantly being told I was working TOO fast and increasing the production requirements for my machine for others and this was made CLEAR to me as being no acceptable by the shop steward.
When I left, I promised to NEVER work in an environment like that again. By the way, this company produced oil valves for the Alaska Pipeline and is out of business now as are many machinist jobs which used to be pre-dominate in this area.