(First, in the spirit of full disclosure; I'm a retired Teamster with 40 years experience hauling freight on the highways of the Northeast.)

No I'm not Donna, and I don't consider the Public Unions to be in the same class as the Private Unions. Private Unions, like the vast majority of Teamsters represented companies, have to compete in the marketplace and live and die within the capitalist system. If Private Unions overreach, the companies that employ them could fail and the worker could lose his employment. This is something that never happens in public sector unions. When my Union Local lost money through failing investments and lost members, we accepted a reduction in future pensions contributions and higher medical deductibles to protect our funds viability. When has a public union ever had to do that. Teachers and Policemen and Fireman don't live in the marketplace and never expect a reduction of benefits because of hard times. Proof? .... check out Greece.

In the case of the UAW the union did not control the pension fund; they were controlled by management; for example GM, Chrysler and Ford.

GM did not save or invest to fund the negotiated pensions and thought they would sell thousands of cars a day until the end of time to pay this bill.
Well times changed and the bill came due and GM blames the Union.
The Union wasn't negligent in the funding of the pension, it was the short-sightedness of the auto-maker.
Now you can argue that the contract was extravagant and that's another issue, but it was negotiated within the confines of the NLRB and was a valid contract. If the money to fund the contract was, instead, given to the Union, like my contract required, then the failing of the pension could only be faulted to the Union and the auto-maker would be in the clear, without this debt or responsibility to the worker. Then the Union would have had to make the adjustment to the fund if it wanted to remain viable.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but this is an issue I've long had to explain the misconceptions of and I've still only touched the surface.