I think this is what's needed on a massive scale to end rent-seeking by publishers. The problem as I see it is two-fold: one, the academic institution requires

I think this is what's needed on a massive scale to end rent-seeking by publishers. The problem as I see it is two-fold: one, the academic institution requires publishing to an esteemed journal. And two, the esteemed journal seeks exorbitant fees because they know the institutions want esteemed journals. If a union forced the institutions to stop requiring publishing to esteemed journals, and instead formed boards of reviewers that gave ratings to pre-prints on a donation-based server, then the big publishers would have to adapt dramatically new pricing to compete.