The Supreme Court recently overturned this, but for a long time unions just extracted monopoly rents from all employees whether they liked it or not.
Just like the corporations that abuse their monopoly powers.
They optimize for benefits to their members, just as corporations optimize for benefits for their shareholders.
And just as businesses who get to big can abuse their monopoly status, big unions can also have negative consequences.
This is free market at work.
Edit: Which is why free markets need sensible regulations, to keep abuses from happening
The Correctional Peace Officers Association literally advocates for terrible public policy because it is in the financial interest of their members.
There is no goodness to celebrate here. This is an evil organization and in a just world it will come to a swift, peaceful, and complete end.
But it's ok for every single for-profit private company to do the same thing in the interest of its shareholders? Even when the company's aims are to the detriment of society as a whole?
...wait, did I say that?
They get paid shit even with the union.
Did I say any of those things?
No no, I think that there need to be dramatically fewer prisons, and dramatically fewer prison guards, and the union advocates exactly the opposite of that. That's not OK.
Getting the money upfront and investing it could be substantial, but thats still a much better negotiation than most Americans get for their jobs which are usually at most 40k without full pensions or almost any other benefit.
My grandmother is 86 and is infinitely grateful for her 25 years worked at a public university as a secretary. Those kinds of "obligations" are not large up front numbers but some people like the guaranteed security, at least up until austerity starts taking away the pay they were promised half a century ago.