DeletedUser
I'm not sure where you heard that stubbornness and interference of unions brought about the end to your national pastime. Evidently the source was incorrect -- the unions were not demanding a pay increase, they were rejecting a pay cut. Nor were Hostess' managers attempting to ensure all workers remained in employment, they were rather pulling as much revenue out of the company as they could get their hands on, leading to said financial troubles.For many years, I only snacked on Twinkies (sometimes Ho-Hos, Chocodiles, Suzie-Q's, Cupcakes, and Snoballs). I hardly go with any other brand because of the taste. I was distraught when I hear that my national pastime will come to an end as a result of union stubborness and interference. I understand unions were created to 'supposedly' help the employee be better in their way of working life, however, they had hurt many workers. I am sure that Hostess was trying to find a way to keep those 18k+ workers employed and getting themselves out of any financial trouble that they may have. However, the union was stubborn in demanding they (the employees) get better wages and in the end, the employees lose. Unemployment line? That's another financial hardship to the country as a whole and the support is limited.
Unions only exist in industries and companies that put short term corporate interests before both the long term interests of the company and the reasonable interests of workers. "If" you owned a business, I hope your first call of action wouldn't be to boost management salaries by 80% as Hostess did in the same year they ceased (contracted) pension benefits, otherwise your employees would have every reason to treat your customers "wrongly".If I had owned a business, I would not even let unions set foot into it and push their demands: they can do that elsewhere. If I get employees, I will make sure they get treated right and paid good enough as we progress through. If we profit, everyone gets an incentive. If we don't, then we take a look, learn from it, and make better avenues to get us on a winning track. That's the way it should be. If a company is not profiting because of its worker base treating customers wrongly, should that company reward those workers (wage increases) just because a "union" said so? If that was my company, I would have given them the pink slip and hire those who can treat customers better.
For example, let's take Wal-Mart. If everyone that is employed there treated customers with courtesy, union or not, the customers will shop there more, and the company will get more revenue that might work on for wage increases for a job well done. I am not an employee of Wal-Mart, but I am a customer that only shops at a few of their locations (and will travel far as possible to get that type of service -- as I based a location on the courtesy of the employees that were given to a customer among other things) while disregarding the others (those that treat a customer poorly).
As MC_Hammer detailed, make no mistake here. Hostess has been operating under the management of so called venture capitalists, sucking every last dime out of the company. It is an unsubstantiated assumption that employee performance was poor, but even were it so, that's a direct result of the mistreatment and pay cuts imposed by management. There was no "greater good" in Hostess, the company and all its staff worked to line the pockets of its executives -- the harder everyone worked, the richer they became. The unions calling it quits was inevitable, bakers just did it first.
Meh, ya silly troll That's exactly what the bakers did -- walked away from collective negotiations, all quit and went elsewhere. Hostess subsequently failed to find these people who would kiss the ground to take uncontracted pay cuts, so their gamble failed, and management filed for bankruptcy. Surely you've found some better fallacy to parrot away by now hehe...well, here is my thought...
Nobody open your own business, because the masses think they get to run it despite the fact that it is your company. And if the bakers didn't like the company, they could have quit and gone elsewhere. Then the company would have had to either step up or fail. I know a few people who would have bowed and kissed the ground to be offered the job that the bakers union *issed away.