Unions are a waste. They're only protect the deadbeats and then they're gonna have that long ass process if they need to get rid of a player.
Regardless tho, any of those dudes could've said no and that's the end of it. Really no arguing if any other way if they were up front.
Easy to take potshots at unions since our hard fought and won battles trickle down to the rest of the workforce. Of course, the workforce understands the purpose of unions when they're most necessary--unfortunately they can't be conjured up at will. Kinda like insurance. Sucks to pay it year round...that is until you have an accident.
After years of hiring freezes, furloughs, and skipped raises, our California State University union successfully "negotiated" a pay raise for all professors. We had numerous fact finding sessions that backed up our position, the budget was there, the (bloated) administration continued to give themselves raises, but complained that they couldn't "prioritize" our salaries given all the other things they wanted to do with the money they had, and it only happened when tens of thousands of professors voted for a strike.
Here's an article from last year describing the paltry pay professors were trying to live on
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-calstate-faculty-20150407-story.html