If you've worked in environments dominated by unions you most certainly know that that story wasn't fabricated. I had a friend that worked show sites, comic con and stuff like that. She told me that in some states, when they set up a kiosk they weren't allowed to plug plugs into wall sockets because it required someone in the electricians union.
I'm glad you made a lot of money. Were you worth that kind of money? The guy walking around plugging plugs into the wall in my example was most certainly not. I'd rather just not do business than do business in environments where bureaucracies create pointless busy work to keep people paid.