They "negotiate" by leaving.
The only people this benefits are the poor employees. I have some natural advantages over the next guy, namely that I can carry about 140 lbs of equipment, while a lot of the guys I've worked with can only carry probably 70-80 lbs. Basically I spend half the time with the petty crap and end up finishing the job sooner. I don't believe I should be getting paid the same as the next guy, I also don't think I should be paid as much as a guy who can carry 200 lbs and can get things done faster than me.
If someone does 20% more than me, they should be paid 20% more. I don't believe in pay brackets and crap like what Unions use, because I've seen what unions do to people. I knew a guy who'd been in a dry waller's union for 20 years, he hadn't had a single pay rise since he got put into a foreman role, and he'd seen a lot of guys his age be canned because their wage was ridiculously high and they were too old to do the heavy lifting.
* People who write well generally think well. Construction, beyond brute strength, requires mechanical thought. Therefore,...
However, I specialized in the Handy-Man kind of work so there's too many different job sites or the companies too small to actually have a specific guy hauling stuff. So in the jobs I worked you had to be both smart and strong. Electrical, plumbing and gas can be extremely complicated to put in, especially when you're modifying a house that's over 50 years old.
(At 17 I started working as a reviewer and the editor considered me the best they had. So I believe I have a high aptitude for writing. I've had a couple short stories published, and right now I'm working on a novel.)
This has made sick of those kind people, and the management. In the end others look foolish for being honest.