Back a few years when rules were more relaxed. Union people were know to go out and sit at the bar(or wherever) and brag about getting paid while they are there. Not all of them did this of course, but enough. I knew a guy that worked for GM. He would go to work, punch in, turn around and walk out, to sit in the bar all day long and tell everyone he was doing this. Now people who have to go to work everyday and stay there in order to get paid, would be a little upset. And then you get the media saying we make $75 per hour. So they are thinking we make this money to do nothing. My brother-in-law is a doctor. He gets patients who are sitting in Gen, when they tell him they get paid good money to sit home, or sit somewhere playing cards all day just waiting for a job to come along, he really doesn't understand the whole concept. And then these people watch the media coverage on strikes, people think we are out there demanding more money. Step outside the union and look back in. We have given the wrong impression. Don't go around telling people what you make, it only upsets them and they think autos are so expensive because of our wages (that we don't earn of course). Oh and then lump all those benefits on top of it.
People out there ask questions like...what make you think you are entitled to be taken care of for the rest of your life, just because you worked for a company for 30 years? Why do union people get free legal when the rest of the people have to pay out there nose for this service? (They don't know how bad our legal is) And so on, and so on...
We should be educating the public on how the union has won so many things for the betterment of society. It isn't obvious to them anymore. Working conditions in every industry are better and the companies do this just to keep the union out.
The public just doesn't understand where they and we have come from and how much good the union has done for everyone. We really need to find a way to educate them, but I think at this point they will just think we are trying to justify.