It's not a no-sums game. Destroying unions and thus reducing compensation/benefits is going to drive good teachers right out of the profession, especially in math and science where we could make $20,000 extra as software developers, technicians, or engineers.
Teachers want fair compensation, yeah. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. It's not ridiculous. We aren't subject to beg. If I see my raise increments decrease, there's only so much I can take. Local districts are already cutting salaries. If it continues, I'm leaving to get my masters and become an engineer. I'll gladly take $75,000-$90,000+ for a standard 45 hour job where I'm not attacked for my profession.
Look up the statistics on union empowerment . You're extrapolating data in an incorrect fashion. The South performs the worst in educational achievement, and their unions are the weakest. Vermont performs the best in the union and has some of the most active union branches. For nearly ten years Florida privatized education for low-income households and it failed. Clearly your diagnosis is off-key.
News travels fast in schools. Good teachers quickly learn which teachers suck. Unless they're teaching senior subjects, we suffer from their failures as well. We're better judges than most admins, parents, and students, many of whom hold grudges against hard teachers. But asking us to take more and more pay cuts just so people can target the unions (while ignoring administration) ain't happening.