Can you explain what Thiel's article has to do with professionalizaton or unionizaton of software engineers? Thiel's thesis here is that you need to innovate to hold an at least temporary monopoly on something (you have the monopoly because you're the only one in the market yet), it has nothing to do with what you mention.
Selling one's labor as an individual is competition, which Thiel says is "for losers." Unionizing and practicing collective bargaining is effectively forming a monopoly in the market for a particular type of labor--at least if you can get a critical mass of workers to join your union.
