You sound like a good man, applying the same principles I applied to my coworkers when employed, that I now apply to my vendors and customers. I'm glad you found a situation you're happy with, whether that be in a union or out.
Funny story: I used to work in a company where my boss, the VP, was philosophically anti-union because he thought "each employee should be able to negotiate with the company on his own merits". I had some problems with unions in practice, but had no problem with the actual concept, so we ended up agreeing to disagree. I found out what a hypocrite he was when I learned that our company and three competitors in town had an agreement between their management not to hire each others employees.
So in the "mind" of my boss, collective bargaining of the small against the large is unfair, but collective bargaining of several larger entities against individual small entities is just hunky dory. What a maroon he was.
You saw through his hypocrisy. The problem that is faced is that with power and authority comes resposibility and some supervisors cannot overcome their base desires to feel good about themselves by degrading and humiliating others. A union is not the perfect answer but it does level the playing field somewhat. There are abuses on both sides to be sure. The companies and societies best interest are set aside in this category.