If that's true, the pilots at the airlines you've previously mentioned have placed themselves at a disadvantage.

A corporation is a non-living, non-breathing entity that only exists on paper and has the sole purpose of extracting money from a market.

As a living and breathing member of the labor force I'm happy to have a union (albeit a soulless one) to negotiate on my behalf. The company I work for generates revenue off my pilots license - they don't own the certificate - I do and that has collective value in negotiations.

As far as citing the obvious, unions negotiate as large of a piece of that pie as possible. Call it stacking the deck if you will, although I think ascribing any human emotion to contract negotiations, especially emotions based on ethics or morality, is a false argument. People are ethical and moral (which I highly support and encourage!), corporations aren't alive and therefore can't be moral or ethical.

In a perfect world every corporation would be led by virtuous and ethical men and women - and many are. However, the very charter of a corporation in today's business world is at odds with the ethics you suggest.

In the meantime, the only apology I have for working under a CBA is that the rates aren't higher, the work rules better, and the retirement more robust.