> What gives one company, or a set of arbitrary companies, the right to hold wages down?
The lack of someone to stop them.
Unions have been demonized so long that they're assumed to be universally bad, but a corporation is a collection of people and resources organized to pursue a goal their members couldn't pursue individually. One of the advantages they have is superior bargaining power. Corporations often take advantage of this power, corrupting the market.
A union is another organization of people and resources attempting to get more for its members through increased bargaining power. Sometimes they do this in a way that corrupts the market. But unions are inherently bad and are being driven to extinction, while corporations are inherently good and ever more powerful.
The lack of someone to stop them.
Unions have been demonized so long that they're assumed to be universally bad, but a corporation is a collection of people and resources organized to pursue a goal their members couldn't pursue individually. One of the advantages they have is superior bargaining power. Corporations often take advantage of this power, corrupting the market.
A union is another organization of people and resources attempting to get more for its members through increased bargaining power. Sometimes they do this in a way that corrupts the market. But unions are inherently bad and are being driven to extinction, while corporations are inherently good and ever more powerful.