… and they did, and they did.

If you’ve been listening to me for any time at all you will know that I absolutely LOVE this story.  I love it when idiot union members – unthinking mobs – shoot themselves in the foot.  It’s happened again, and I’ll try not to laugh out loud as I tell you about it.

Hostess Brands … you know, the folks who make Twinkies, Ho Hos and other such goodies as well as Wonder Bread, declared bankruptcy last January.  Now this was a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  That means that Hostess was asking the Bankruptcy Court for protection from its creditors as it tried to reorganize so that the business would be profitable and sustainable.  Hostess asked for, and the court granted, permission to force certain concessions regarding wages on benefits on the labor unions representing its workers.  This is why we have Chapter 11 bankruptcies.  The theory behind Chapter 11 is that it is better to allow a company to reorganize by restructuring its debt and agreements with labor unions than it is for the company to simply shut down and put all of the workers on the streets and the lenders with unpaid loans.

Well … as you might expect … the union  workers didn’t like this even one little bit.  The took a strike vote and prepared to walk out.  Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn made it clear to the unions and to the media that he would flat-out close – shut down – any Hostess facilities that were no longer able to produce and deliver products because of union action.  The unions chose to ignore his warning and went on strike last Friday.  Who knows, maybe they were feeling emboldened by the victory of their hero Barack Obama.  At three plants non-union workers refused to cross the union picket lines, and these locations were permanently closed. Over 650 union jobs … gone.

Now on the show today you’re going to hear some audio from one of these union members.  You will hear him say that “all you want to do is just take our jobs away from us.”  Well, union dude, here’s a hint.  Those are NOT your jobs.  Those jobs belong to the company – to Hostess.  They created those jobs, not you.  You were looking for a job.  They had a job.  You found the job.  It’s theirs.  They let you do it in exchange for money and benefits.  You didn’t give them a damn thing.  You traded work for money. 

By the way, union dude, you need to brush up on your English before you go looking fo another gig.  It’s a buyer’s market right now.  Potential employers aren’t impressed with people who say “we ain’t got no ….”   Just a friendly hint.