Welcome to the private sector, pard.
I now tend to believe that what's happened is that union employees (public or private) have just maintained the wages and benefits that used to be the norm for most private sector workers, too.
What's happened in the interim is that we have allowed our industry to be hollowed out by "free trade" and excessive immigration (both legal and illegal) combined with the dominance of the financial sector have redirected more of the national income from labor to capital.
Fix the underlying economic problems and the rest go away: everyone makes more money, job security increases, the tax base expands and public services can be adequately funded while deficits decrease.
Just like it was from '45 to '75 when our economy was protected and immigration was minimal.