And there were a lot of cozy buddy-buddy relationships between the union and management, no matter how bad the rhetoric got sometimes from the union side.
Yes, the union protected jobs, but they also made deals with management that certain jobs could be cut without the union protesting, if another set of jobs could be protected. We knew this was going on, but hey, we were underlings and basically helpless.
True, there is a lot of the typical union shenanigans going on. Comes with the territory, I suppose. But, there are a lot of dedicated and professional acting clerks that are union whether they really care or not about union things aside from job protection. It's tough on a clerk to lose his job just because the Big Guy just elected is of the other Party. Good clerks are not all that common, and the damage to the records can be considerable.