It’s a Good Question
Have they? Are they the flour/sugar/butter union coup de grâce?
Have Twinkies Killed the Union Movement?
Original Twinkies are coming back—but under new management—and with a vow to use nonunion workers.
Some five months after Hostess shut down over a standoff with its unions, the restructured company is expecting to put its snacks back on store shelves in the coming months.
The Hostess closing left more than 18,000 people out of work across the country—with the vast majority belonging to the Teamsters and the Bakery Union.
With Hostess back in business, labor analysts say the union movement may have taken a major hit just when it seemed to be gaining lost energy with recent walkouts or job actions.
“The Hostess strike will be a lasting image and not for the good of unions,” said Marc Bloch, a labor and employment lawyer at Walter & Haverfield.
“I think any management team will hold up a photo to its workers of Hostess strikers and say, ‘What’s a union going to do for you?”’ Bloch said. “The case can be made that they did nothing.”
Biz, Life, Nanny State, Politics | tree hugging sister | 
April 29, 2013 11:06 am
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Those new workers better have concealed carry licenses, and they’d better stay armed while at home and all other times.
It’s not the case of them doing nothing but rather that what they did took down a union-friendly company & put a serious dent in their credibility – and finances.
On a side note, it looks as though the BGTCM is still butthurt about the corner they painted themselves into.
Skyler,
If the membership were to “connect the dots”, it would be the union leadership who should be worried.
I wonder how many of the brotherhood would be willing to dump the union to get their old jobs back. That’s something to find out!
I’m curious what the general membership reaction was when they heard the baker’s union didn’t ratify the contract to keep them all working. THAT had to be an interesting evening in more than a few households and union halls. “They did *&$#ing WHAT?!?!?!?”
The union, just like Obama, wants their red line back.
Leelu, you clearly have not been hanging around union work places.
The Teamsters, the ILWU and probably the Bakers are violent and active. The opinions of the “membership” is irrelevant. When the order is given to riot, they riot. When the order is given to burn, they burn. And when they want to intimidate someone at their home, they will easily find enough people willing to do so.
Skyler,
True dat. Not since my days at Boeing.
OTOH, it never got to the point where they were going to put the company out of business, either.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to play with them.
Correct, Skyler. I can only add that virtually all unions are parasitical these days.
It ain’t about worker rights, it’s about power and wealth of the union bosses.
“The well-adapted parasite does not kill it’s host.”
Sort of like a mistletoe ~ Pucker UP and give ’em a big wet one!
Unions are anything but well adapted, mojo.
Can you imagine me doing the Snoopy Happy Dance? 😀 And I don’t even like twinkies…
@mojo – indeed, and @ JeffS – the same.
They were – and I do mean that – needed back when. THIS sort of abuse was what unions were, long ago made to combat. But, they eventually found that they had power and everything went downhill from there.
I don’t know the answer to unions – they still (or at least collective action) is still needed to stop abuses. But the unions are now abusers. And if we ban them all and make some successor legal, they too will become abusers.
I have no answers. I wish I did. Only questions.
To badly mis-phrase a lovely song… “May the circle be a broken, by and by, Lord by and by…”
This would help: No “professional” union guys – those extra fat guys you always see at strikes, but not at work. The Hoffas of the world. Tell ’em to get their fat asses to work, or take a hike.
No public employee unions – just asking for trouble.
I do not buy into the propaganda that unions were ever necessary. Using force should be the province of government, not private organizations. The right way to protect workers was not to give them what amounts to legal immunity for criminal behavior, including assault, murder, destruction of property etc., but to get the government to protect individuals. Unions are a symptom of the people failing to keep government in check.