Meanwhile, one of the 3 guys at work is working nights and weekends for free. He's salary. I keep telling him to go outside and live life. Stop giving everything away to the owners. He doesn't listen. He thinks he's going to save the company. I'm like buddy if those extra hours are all that's between success and failure, the company's fucked. That's flu away from disaster. He doesn't listen.
Don't just form the union, make it work for you. You don't just form a union and magically everything gets better with no more effort on your part. You have to be active and determined otherwise the union just becomes another bureaucratic mess looking to use you for their own gain.
At this point, skip asking for a raise and go straight to forming a union. It saves time. It implies they should have been taking care of the workforce in the first place. And your colleagues likely need raises too.
Then over demand, because they'll try to offer less. If they try any technical or procedual shenanigans, show they've been caught and double your demands.
Remind them that unions and strikes are the peaceful alternative to violent retribution, and by trying to block unionization they are admitting they'd rather a class war.
If law enforcement gets involved, tell the state that siding with the owners will only escalate thr conflict, and extend the precarity out to the rest of the economy. Stock values will totally tank, and legislators and gubernators will be held personally responsible by their shareholding plutocratic masters.