Pros
I'm a union staffer (there's union and non-union). For me, the healthcare benefits were the biggest reason for my jump. My whole family is covered on city employee health insurance. I pay no premiums and have access to great care. I took a salary cut for the benefits. I kept my NY State Pension and still have access to a 403B as well as other bennies like Sittercity/Bright Horizons for caregiving support and pre-tax commuter funds. In my day-to-day work, I'm supported by specialized teams dedicated to outreach, early literacy and book operations / collection management. The system has tremendous resources and at my branch, I'm part of a big, collaborative team.
Cons
Working with other people in a public service role and putting my kids in daycare meant SICKNESS! For my first week on the job (and my first weeks back from maternity leave) my immediate supervisor and I both got COVID. This meant my whole family got COVID. When we recovered from that, my kids picked up a virus at daycare and I was down and out again without any sicktime balance to fall back on (plus an annoyed supervisor). It ultimately worked out, but was stressful. Also I work with a diverse team, and while tolerance is emphasized in the trainings, I still found myself getting heckled by a coworker and security staff member in the staff lounge ("some people eat the nastiest sh**" .. into his breaktime cell phone conversation. I was the only person eating in the room at the time and he was at the neighboring table). I felt my race, and I felt like a reject in the lunch room. People are people though, so I decided to let that one go and move on... (except for this review, ofc).