From personal experience, I can say working in a closed shop UFCW grocery store was better on almost every level than when I worked in a non-union grocery store

From personal experience, I can say working in a closed shop UFCW grocery store was better on almost every level than when I worked in a non-union grocery store. I count that as a positive experience but I've also seen unions that are little more than extortion rackets. There's one particular union active in my area that protests any job site where they wanted their members hired exclusively and didn't get their way. The members of the union don't themselves protest, instead they hire minimum wage workers to harass passersby. They line both sides of sidewalks, leaving only a very small path through. Each person on both sides of the sidewalk will push a sheet of paper in the face of anyone trying to get by, being careful to not actually touch the person. The paper is their demand that the job site hire them. These lines can be twenty or thirty people deep, with each participating in the just legal enough harassment. They also issue whistles to these faux protestors to blow throughout the day in order to make life as miserable as possible in the area. They know the limits to what they can legally get away with. Doubt anyone who has had to run that gauntlet more than once came away with a positive view of unions. Not sure what's the solution to this type of behavior and this is an extreme example but in general unions often take the public hostage in their disputes which makes their image with the public negative.