[vezzy-fnord]

It's stating that the playing field is unfair and that becoming a taxi driver isn't a career path anymore.

Of course it's unfair. You have an artificially constrained supply.

I perceive it to be as a means for workers to make certain they have fair working conditions and fair pay for their work as a base.

In the same way, a business cartel is a means for firms to coordinate operations in a manner to mutually benefit in terms of profitability by vertically integrating stages of production or through more brute price gouging arrangements.

Of course, they have a high incentive to break down as a result of disobeying to exploit new opportunities from the leveling that has been done.

Unions serve the same function, but on the demand side (more specifically wage laborers). You can't support one without also allowing for the other.