Moving to a union environment has left me working fewer hours, getting better benefits, and more than doubling my salary. I'm glad things worked out for you [presumably in what is currently one of the hottest occupations], but a union has been a boon to my total compensation.
The whole point is this isn't about you. This is about all of us.
We live in a society, and we damn well need to start acting like it again, rather than the proverbial crabs in a bucket, desperately stepping on each other to try to get ourselves higher.
Stop thinking of yourself as an individual employee and start thinking of yourself as a member of a union. Then actually form that union.
You don't get across-the-board raises by "generating leads". You get them by collectively bargaining.
And I reject entirely the notion that one should be only looking out for one's own gain.