your statement shows you've either never worked for a union company , or you didn't stay there long enough to hit top rate.
i work for ups freight and make almost 5 dollars a hour more as a city driver then fed ex freight,and i pay 21 dollars a week for my 5 person family on my insurance.
which is about 1/3 of the cost a fed ex city driver pays for his 6 person family.
now i'm no pro union whipping boy but as far as pay ,health care and retirement there is no comparison really, a union company is better.i mean how many non union outfits have a pension? zero thats how many.most are barley breaking the 20 a hour mark where as the union outfits are over 26. some non unions companies don't even pay overtime till they have over 55 hours a week....
but we have other down sides that we learn to work with, "6 month internet course educated supers,sub par equipment,not as much flexibility" .
equipment, work conditions are two of the big ones that are better ,at least at fed ex and OD . i cant speak for all the other union places but at ups there is a lot expected of us, and we are constantly rode hard to reach that expectation. they get the cheapest junk trucks, and run them till the wheels fall off , some of our older body style volvo's have north of 4 million miles on them when the motor blows they just pop a new one in and send it back out as long as the body isn't showing rust.
as far as the health care quality level ,in april of this year i had reconstruction surgery on my left knee all 3 ligaments were tore. it cost me a total of 112.00 out of pocket from my first dr appointment to the last day of therapy .