I have to admit that I've held off commenting upon the demise of Hostess, trying very hard not to point out the Pyrrhic victory of the baker's union over the corporation. But it's reached the point of parody and I can no longer contain myself.
When you have union bosses saying the loss of over 18,000 jobs is a win over corporate greed it's an indication that you need different union bosses, or better yet, no union at all.
This isn't the first time a union has had a cut-your-nose-off-to-spite-your-face 'victory', leaving their members with no jobs and no prospects for new jobs any time soon. Is it any wonder labor union membership has plummeted over the past few decades as the unions have lost touch with both economic realities and the rank and file? How many unions have generated insane, incomprehensible, and contradictory work rules that made it more difficult and more expensive for any company to get anything done? (Speaking as a former union member, I can tell you from personal experience that some of those work rules were asinine. One such rule we had to deal with constantly was that governing fans – the large fans with the round metal floor stands used to circulate air when needed – requiring an millwright to move it and an electrician to plug it into the wall socket and turn it on. You could neither move, adjust, or turn the fan on or off without either one of those workers, otherwise they could file a grievance and cause you all kinds of trouble.)
While unions boast that they protect the rights of workers, and in the past they did, that is no longer true. Much of what the unions fought for is now codified in labor law, leaving the unions floundering for new relevance. Unfortunately much of that new relevance is directed at trying to overthrow the entrepreneurial spirit and capitalist economy that has made this nation great. The problem is that few in the private sector are buying the line of hokum the labor unions are selling...except for the socialists. (It's not like the socialists have all that great a track record in regards to jobs, either.) It's time for the labor union bosses to understand that it's very easy to kill jobs by remaining intractable. Once any company realizes it's impossible to come to an agreement with a union that will allow it to remain economically viable it will pull the plug and close its doors. That's what happened with the baker's union and Hostess.
I'm sure all of those now unemployed baker's union workers are exultant that they've shown Hostess they won't back down. I'm sure they're also overjoyed at the fact that they've lost their jobs just before the holiday season.
