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> I want underperforming mechanics out ASAP and the best ones rewarded.

That would be nice. I think it's more likely that it would be the mechanics that don't make waves and keep costs down who would be rewarded. Woe betide the mechanic who insists on delaying a flight and costing the airline large amounts of money to investigate a possible issue that might result in a 0.01% chance of a crash, rather than delaying it to a more convenient time.

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Sure, that would be nice. Maybe I'm just not familiar with unions, but what are some examples of high performing / high quality companies with a unionized workforce?

My only experience is friends who have worked in unions and their stories make it sound like there's little to no chance for advancement besides waiting in line, so at best people skate by and do the bare minimum and at worst actively try to subvert management decisions.

Plumbers, electricians, lots of other sole proprietor workforces in the trades have unions that institute strong training and protection for their union work. Is it perfect, nope. I can't stand police unions in my state because they prevent perfectly reasonable road crews from functioning with only flag crews instead of with flag crews and a usually sleeping officer just to pad their wages. There's some crappy things about unions but it's the only effective way to protect individuals from companies. They don't however protect companies from outsourcing, usually to lower paid non union workers of lower quality.

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