I believe that they currently offer higher rates than privatized industry

This raises the cost to consumer and productivity goes down. Their entitlement appears to be abused. I work in an industry that is both union and non union and see an abuse of this in the union regions more. The cost is higher, causing a higher cost to the consumer, while the worker makes more and contributes more to society creating a catch-22, but their productivity is lower. I believe more research and data informed decision making needs to go into unions.