A pension plan is certainly more viable than a 401k.
And remember, for the UAW to even have a pension plan, the people who run the Big 3 had to agree to those terms.
What's wrong with a working man, who makes the cars (because they aren't going to make themselves) wanting something for his retirement?
And when cars were selling nobody cared about what the UAW made.
If everybody was a CEO, there would be no one to actually do the work.
Shouldn't you have more interest in your own bottom line than the company you work for bottom line? After your gone, they are not going to give one iota of crap if you can feed yourself or not (since they don't now). The UAW getting a contract was the worker's way of making sure that their bottom line was protected.
Not only is there nothing wrong with that, that is something everyone should do.