Let me start here by saying I am not a member of the bakers union, have never worked for Hostess, and really don't have any inside information and only a little of the history of the situation, but I find myself completely mystified by the lack of ability for the union(s) that are involved with Hostess, and the company itself, to find a solution to the problems the company is having.
Yet again it seems that the union is dead set on watching their members lose their jobs rather than giving in on the concessions that the company is telling them they need. Where I have seen this played out before? Oh, I go back a ways, so I could reach back in the mental files and think about Eastern Airlines and their demise. Yes, they had one of the worst CEOs ever to run a company (though I know some that would give him a run for the money), but when the company told the union workers that they had to accept the cuts that were promised or watch everyone lose their job, they meant it. The union told the employees to stay firm, hang on, the company would come crawling back to them. Uh, yeah, and when's the last time that approach has worked?
The same sort of scenario seems to be playing out here. Better to not work at all, rather than suffer the cuts that the company would impose upon the union membership. Really?
Perhaps it is, and perhaps I should have filed this article under one of my favored categories - politics. Perhaps those union workers are assured that they'll get to collect 99 weeks worth of unemployment while they sit back and wait for the economy to get better. They'll have free health care compliments of Obamacare. What's not to like for them?
These are the sorts of results one can expect when we make things too easy and remove the incentives for working hard in this country. While I'd like to see everyone paid fair wages for the work they do, and I dislike the idea of greedy CEOs and company management getting fat on the backs of the workers that they employ/manage, I really don't think Hostess brands has been making their management and stockholders fat and happy (actually, the baked goods might be making customers fat, but that is an article for another day). They are trying to emerge from bankruptcy. They have no profits to speak of and things don't look to be getting any better for them any time soon.
I wish I could say that the bakers union and Hostess would reach some agreement here, but it appears to be a lost cause. Instead, the union membership will lose their jobs at Hostess. Someone will come in and buy up the assets that Hostess has/had, and some of those former employees may find themselves getting jobs at whomever picks up the pieces. They might even find themselves getting compensation that would come within striking distance (no pun intended here) of the offer(s) they've gotten from management at their current employer. Too bad they likely won't ask themselves how they are better off with their new bosses and new employers than they were in working under a contract they deemed too unfavorable.
