Here's another little bit of truth: The history of private sector unions is entirely unlike the history of public sector unions.
The rise of unions in the private sector was largely based on workers who were terribly exploited and worked in very unsafe conditions.
For most public sector workers, there has never been the level of hostility toward their demands. In fact, many politicians fear the employee unions greatly, giving them a power over the state and local governments that is disproportionate.
When public workers unionize, they lose any real sense of job accountability. This is very unlike a private sector union workers, who still have to be careful to make sure their company survives.
Also, let's admit something else that is true.
The whole basis of unions was to protect "the worker" - the man who actually does the dirty work of producing the wealth.
Most public sector employees are superfluous pencil-pushers. They don't actually produce. They collect taxes, enforce rules, etc.
But that is not production. While we do need some government, many governmental bodies do more to hinder production than help it.
The key issue here is that many private sector union workers will automatically, reflexively, and unthininkly support public sector unions because, well, because of the work "union".
"I'm a union man. Therefore I support all union workers."
Well, that is sweet of you, and kind of cute, but what you need to see is that public sector unions are going to give private sector unions a bad name.
In reality, private sector union workers should be distancing themselves from public sector unions, since they are altogether a different thing.
I realize that many people will refuse to see the difference, however, since their mental process is only union=good. Well, go ahead, but when the public sector unions get clobbered as their greed is being discovered, the public may lose sympathy for us as well.
4 uncles and a brother work in the public sector. They would make the exact same and sometimes more in the private sector. Either sector they fall under the same contract and same union. Only reason they work in the public sector is because they have better consistency of work.