Turns out we largely are, just like in most other industries. Probably like to think we’re irreplaceable snowflakes. But we’re not.
> people who do better than average should not be held down
Ah yes that old chestnut, that unions mandate No Employee May Achieve Above Average
One of the first things a union would do is decouple compensation from performance and introduce a standard compensation structure for all workers, segmented by job level. (And somehow the people who are personal friends of the union leaders seem to rise in job level faster than the others…)
The kind of people who are attracted to that kind of structure are not the ones who build successful industries, and they are demoralizing to have as coworkers.
This argument is a strawman, and really is a worsr-possible-case caricature of union activity. I've worked in a number of workplaces having a unionised workforce my entire professional career (~25 years, private industry and government) and I've never observing anything like the scenario you describe. Ambitious, talented people are promoted and improve their compensation. Average-performance clock-punchers reach a certain level and stop. Poor performers are managed out of the organisation. Union membership is no ticket to a cushy job for life.
I'm not denying that the worst-case scenario could happen, but it's by no means a given. IMO this kind of fundamentalist opinion is unhelpful, and doesn't reflect the reasonable balance of priorities and opinions which people have out there in a modern society.
This is seen, at least partially, as what drew a lot of people to the current "big tech" companies. They wanted to work on interesting problems. The pay was high, but it mattered a lot less than that the work was actually rewarding.
Onboarding or 'getting someone up to speed' is a far more invasive and disruptive task than many believe. Manager probably dream about adding and removing employees as easily as buying more or less food for a catering event. Institutional knowledge and employee quality are no where near that easy.