Just my opinions on it
Finicial problems for company
This one I know a lot of people disagree with me on. Union guys make $30 cheap labor makes $8. I don't think the problem is the union guys wage, I think the problem is everyone wants cheap labor. It is the reason so many jobs have left America in the first place. I think people should pay a fair price for quality products or service. Not the cheapest labor that won't do as good of a job and not the cheapest made products from China that aren't as good. In everyones effort to save money we gave away millions of American jobs and are now making the seperation between lower and upper class grow. Unions are what make the middle class strong.
Overpaid
$30 is a fair wage. $30/hr x 40 hrs/week x 52 weeks = 62,400. This is enough for a decent living. it doesn't put them anywhere near upper class. unions have fought really hard over several years to get the working class a fair wage. people will always want labor done for less, but in my opinion forty hours a week of manual labor (and most other jobs) deserves a decent living.
Pensions
I can't speak for all, but I know how ours works and others are similiar. Our retirees are NO drain on the company. We negotiate our raises for the year every contract. The contract agrees to get us $x.xx for the year. From that raise we may choose how much goes on to our actual pay check and how much gets put into things like annuity, health care, pension, and the other things we pay for. For the company it does not matter if we put ten cents or ten dollars an hour into our pension.