Complete nonsense? I provided several well known facts about unions, but instead of refuting them or providing some counter it was hidden away by union groupies.

Sure, let me post them again with links to some sources.

1) Union racism - I thought there was even a congressional testimony by a union leader against allowing Blacks moving to the North to take jobs, but I cannot find it now. However, while I thought it was a 1950-ies problem - [1, including describing a system that goes beyond personal prejudice; etc.], while researching, I found it may STILL be a problem! [2]

2) Union-mafia connections [3, etc. - well known]

3) Anti-immigration stance of unions [4], incl. e.g. famously Cesar Chavez using union power to help deport undocumented immigrants via both law and with violence [5]

4) UAW role in destruction of American auto industry. This one is really typical, the union was milking a recently over-concentrated auto industry when the rest of the world had no auto industry to speak of. At the first sight of competition the whole thing collapsed. [6]

5) Unions preventing and protesting automation of ports, and successfully preventing the govt funding of it during a supply crunch [7] [8]

6) Generalized corruption. Too many small examples, here's a recent one in UAW [9]

7) Featherbedding. Similarly, many examples, some I know personally, NY infrastructure is the most prominent [10]

8) AMA limiting residency spots, med school accreditation, hospital certificates of need, etc. => limiting physicians per capital, producing more expensive healthcare.

9) Police unions... need I say more?

With a cursory search you can find much more in each category, and probably more categories too.

Why would you expect anything else? Think about a union from the first principles, it's as if someone wanted to make a basket case for every possible misaligned incentive.

* Unions have ultimate, NIMBY-like rent-seeking incentive, based on restriction and exclusion of other labor (as demonstrated above, up to racism and anti-immigrant violence when viable - but also via certification beyond any practical necessity, etc.). In a market labor would get wages it deserves. Union incentive is to milk a company for as much extra as it can instead AND ALSO to exclude other labor.

The bet is that even if the company dies, workers will just go to the next one. Or the company can continue as a zombie, with union maneuvering to get as much of the spoils as possible. Sometimes it doesn't work, as with Detroit where it didn't work and industry went abroad; notably, the key union achievements were at the time where the "abroad" was undeveloped and/or bombed out.

Public sector unions are an ultimate racket here, as public sector cannot really go under (I hope) so it can be rent-seeked-from forever.

* They have nothing to gain from progress or innovation that may eliminate jobs or make them more efficient (hence fighting port automation, or at least making automation useless by featherbedding like in NYC).

* They generally are monopolistic, but instead of being broken up/regulated/at least frowned upon like many monopolistic companies, their monopolies and/or coordination with each other is encourage.

* If those weren't enough, long-term, they have basically unaccountable leaders operating over a base of people who, rightfully, are not very engaged in the union politics. Perfect breeding ground for corruption, especially combined with the above two - you cannot run most companies with incompetents and mafia members, you will run them into the ground; but you can easily run a union.

Aside from gangs/mobs/cartels/armies/etc., unions are truly the most harmful institution even created by man. If I wanted to invent an institution with worse incentives from scratch I couldn't have come up with anything so bad.

[1] https://www.commentary.org/articles/herbert-hill/labor-union...
[2] https://ssir.org/articles/entry/union_constructions_racial_e...
[3] https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ocgs/infiltrated-labor-unio...
[4] https://www.npr.org/2013/02/05/171175054/how-the-labor-movem...
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez#cite_ref-FOOTNOTE...
[6] https://cei.org/blog/empire-of-rust-how-the-uaw-killed-detro...
[7] https://www.porttechnology.org/news/west-coast-ports-and-uni...
[8] https://reason.com/2021/11/09/americas-ports-need-more-robot...
[9] https://www.denverpost.com/2021/06/10/united-auto-workers-ga...
[10] https://tunnelingonline.com/why-tunnels-in-the-us-cost-much-....