Union Screw Workers

And I thought the union was for the worker.
From the LVRJ: Frias Transportation Management cabdrivers plan a strike tonight against their company, but how effective that effort will be remains a mystery even to those who say they will join in.
Drivers at Frias, the largest cab company in town with five brands, said at a Wednesday night meeting they would gather at a central point on the Strip at 5 p.m. today, then drive in unison to the company’s yard west of Interstate 15 and return their cabs to start the strike.
Not only do they seek more pay in the form of higher commission on the fares they collect during a shift and certain other benefit enhancements, but they have voiced outrage that an out-of-town United Steelworkers Union official signed a contract on March 11 without a membership vote.
The majority of about 250 drivers at the meeting raised their hands in support of a walkout, in which they could be fired and have no union support. Some, however, wanted more time, or expressed fears that too few drivers would show up to make a walkout effective.
Nelson Liechtenstein, a labor history professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, said that strikes in general have declined in recent decades and that wildcats “are now quite rare.”
But he said that the Steelworkers’ action “doesn’t seem right to me. Even in very autocratic unions, you have a vote of some sort.”  http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/traffic-transportation/frias-cab-drivers-plan-friday-night-strike
The union may have been right and the deal was the best possible.
But why would the union not allow a vote of the workers?
What is the union hiding?
Did the union get bought off by the taxi company?
And I thought the union was for the worker.
I guess not.