I don't understand how this pertains to unions. The conversation was originally about how a union could allow for engineers to be paid consummate to the value t

I don't understand how this pertains to unions. The conversation was originally about how a union could allow for engineers to be paid consummate to the value they provide due to collective bargaining and therefor a greater control on the supply side of labor. If you're saying "talented but lazy people who don't use their talent to provide value shouldn't be paid more" yes, we all agree on that. Nobody is trying to argue that point.