That's not the way it works.

1) The pension says "give us your employer contributions. We'll take that money and invest it so that when it's time for you to retire we can pay you out a defined benefit."

2) The investment bank says "I know you promised these employees that money but our projections were based on a 7% increase per year and the market has been at 3% for the past six years so now we have a shortfall."

3) The employers say "I know you have a pension shortfall but we didn't cause it. Besides, you're already 50% more expensive than scabs. You can choose - lower your rates or lower your contributions."

4) The unions say "we can take a massive hit on what we provide or we can declare insolvency. You choose."

When I started in this industry nearly nothing was union. Ten years later almost everything is. What happened? the IATSE pension fund discovered it was going to go tits up so it started chasing productions like Dog the Bounty Hunter. Did our rates go up? Hell to the naah. IATSE basically told everyone that if they contributed to the pension fund they wouldn't fight them on rate. So it's easier to get your hours but it's harder to pay your rent. Meanwhile the guys who worked with Michael Landon get to retire and bask in that summer glow of beautiful pension money while people like me get the happygrams from IATSE that say things like "so here's what happens when we run out of money."

And look - this is the teamsters we're talking about. They drive and load UPS and the like. Amazon? Amazon hires day players to drop your shit off in their own cars for $9 an hour. Are you going to stop using Amazon? I'm not. I use Lyft. It costs hella less than taxis and provides no security whatsoever to its drivers.

I got my own blood on my own hands and I know it. "cutting the fat" is also "a pound of flesh." How 'bout all those guys who piled their 401(k)s into Enron? Every supervillain origin story starts with an injury.