Can I say this?
Most of these union folks (yes, even in CA) are regular blue collar Americans. They go with the union because it’s their’s and because it’s their livelihood. At the end of the day, most of these people are what we would call “Reagan Democrats.” They are middle class and they are petrified.
We saw this phenomenon during the Scott Brown thing in MA. All the photos of SEIU members for Brown. There isn’t only a disconnect between Obama and us; there’s one between these union leaders and their members. The leaders are hollering for benefits and severence but the members want to keep their JOBS.
Most of these members have more in common with us than with Pelosi and Obama.
One of the big changes that I have noticed is that many of the larger unions started to hire liberal arts graduates or labor studies (read left-wing studies) to administer many of the programs, monitor contracts etc. These new staff members were never part of the craft, never went through the apprenticeship/training programs.
The membership for the most part were Reagan Democrats as you point out; the leadership and staff were leftwing and now moving to hard leftwing fascists.