That middle-man has more power than you do in a huge number of cases. There are very few individual workers where the bosses will suffer mightily if they refuse to work. But almost every boss will suffer mightily if a huge portion of their workers refuse to work. That is the leverage unions have over the bosses that individual workers almost never have.

> I love how I’m supposed to think a middle man acting on my behalf will somehow be better than me acting on my own behalf.

Because you do not think that when employees get together as a single negotiating entity they have more negotiating power? I mean, I understand you don't like unions but I am sure you understand the principle of balance of power.

> Unions are compulsory in blue states (non-right-to-work). They are also political entities funding specific candidates, parties, and causes which means union dues is compelled political speech. It’s crazy.

In those states you can ask to only pay the part of the dues that concern bargaining activities.

Bcs as a lone expendable agent, your capacity to initiate company wide change is nonexistent.

Yeah like Hollywood actors —- why don’t they just drop their agents as they can negotiate themselves!