Get your Twinkies now....hostess...he gone

[irishpat183]

Take the union ranting off topic crap somewhere else. This is laughable. Unions are like everything else.. some good.. some bad.

But don't pretend that's the reason the company went under and take the union bashing out of my twinkie picture thread.

No, they are all bad at this point.

There is no argument on earth that could convince me that a janitor for a car company deserves 70k a year. And a sweet pension.

They served their purpose at one point, now unions are as greedy as the companies that they complain about...


Besides, let your hard work do the talking. What does any self respecting person need a union for?

 

[irishpat183]

These are better anyway

Agreed. And its not close.

 

[gkautz10]

Unions were designed to help people not hurt them. If they had taken the paycut like lot of people would have done the still would be an employee. Unions want you to do less work and make more money. Unions don't care about the good of the employee.

This country was the strongest it has ever been back in the 1950's when union participation was the highest it has ever been. Most of you do not know anything about a union either. My step dad has been a union steelworker for 16 years now and my girlfriends dad has been a union electrician for about 30 years. Go out and have a non union worker fix something in your house and then have a union worker fix something. The quality and assurance you will get from the union worker will be second to none. The pay cut would have only delayed the inevitable. Like others have previously mentioned, Hostess was crippled because of declining revenue, not because their employees were treated fairly and paid a living wage. The management is to blame for this, they have led the company into bankruptcy TWICE now in the last 10 years. A reorg may or may not worked in this situation, but I can assure you that there are quite a few tax consequences that pertain to reorgs. They are quite complicated and take many different forms, I do not know enough of the specifics to say whether one would have worked or not. If you people do not know enough about business to understand why they fail, then don't post on the subject, stick to football.

 

[Irish Houstonian]

What do you mean by the USA was the "strongest" in the 50's?

 

[4irishnation]

This country was the strongest it has ever been back in the 1950's when union participation was the highest it has ever been. Most of you do not know anything about a union either. My step dad has been a union steelworker for 16 years now and my girlfriends dad has been a union electrician for about 30 years. Go out and have a non union worker fix something in your house and then have a union worker fix something. The quality and assurance you will get from the union worker will be second to none. The pay cut would have only delayed the inevitable. Like others have previously mentioned, Hostess was crippled because of declining revenue, not because their employees were treated fairly and paid a living wage. The management is to blame for this, they have led the company into bankruptcy TWICE now in the last 10 years. A reorg may or may not worked in this situation, but I can assure you that there are quite a few tax consequences that pertain to reorgs. They are quite complicated and take many different forms, I do not know enough of the specifics to say whether one would have worked or not. If you people do not know enough about business to understand why they fail, then don't post on the subject, stick to football.

Wow!!! SORRY!!!! Didn't realize that having a step-dad and girlfriends father in unions made you an expert on unions.

 

[tadman95]

Wow!!! SORRY!!!! Didn't realize that having a step-dad and girlfriends father in unions made you an expert on unions.

He's the only one you single out for acting like he's an expert on unions?

 

[gkautz10]

What do you mean by the USA was the "strongest" in the 50's?

Sorry, did not reread the beginning of my post. Should have read 1960's. The 50's economy was stagnant and was trying to recover from the end of the war. The 60's was a booming economy and was the longest uninterrupted period of growth ever. I apologize for my huge typo. After all 5 and 6 are next to each other . My point out of that was that union participation was the highest it ever was at the end of the 50's and beginning of the 60's, which was in conjunction with arguably the best economy the country has seen.

 

[gkautz10]

Wow!!! SORRY!!!! Didn't realize that having a step-dad and girlfriends father in unions made you an expert on unions.

Never claimed I was an expert. I have knowledge on the subject, which I shared.

 

[4irishnation]

I wonder how many people have made comments about how bad smoking, twinkies and McDonalds are for ALL of us, but enjoy that bottle of wine or scotch. #iambetterthanyou

 

[4irishnation]

Never claimed I was an expert. I have knowledge on the subject, which I shared.

As do SOME of us. That is the word you should have used instead of most.

 

[Irish Houstonian]

Sorry, did not reread the beginning of my post. Should have read 1960's. The 50's economy was stagnant and was trying to recover from the end of the war. The 60's was a booming economy and was the longest uninterrupted period of growth ever. I apologize for my huge typo. After all 5 and 6 are next to each other . My point out of that was that union participation was the highest it ever was at the end of the 50's and beginning of the 60's, which was in conjunction with arguably the best economy the country has seen.

Okey dokey. The 60's also had (1) the largest tax cut in American history under JFK and (2) a well-developed, post-war, consumeristic middle-class. It also reaped the benefits of the interstate highway system built in the 50's, which spurred home construction in the burbs and slashed transportation costs.

So pinning all that growth solely on "unionization" is myopic at best. At worst it's just a correlation with no causation. It sounds like you mean well, but longing for a 50's or 60's America is just nostalgia.

If there was one economic miracle that happened in the 60's it was in Japan, and really had little/nothing to do with unionization.

 

[gkautz10]

Okey dokey. The 60's also had (1) the largest tax cut in American history under JFK and (2) a well-developed, post-war, consumeristic middle-class. It also reaped the benefits of the interstate highway system built in the 50's, which spurred home construction in the burbs and slashed transportation costs.

So pinning all that growth solely on "unionization" is myopic at best. At worst it's just a correlation with no causation. It sounds like you mean well, but longing for a 50's or 60's America is just nostalgia.

If there was one economic miracle that happened in the 60's it was in Japan, and really had little/nothing to do with unionization.

Points taken and agreed. The thread was talking about unions that is why I focused on their role in the economy. I understand that they are not the sole reason the economy was the way it was then. Not longing for the nostalgic past, just supporting my views.

 

[irishff1014]

This country was the strongest it has ever been back in the 1950's when union participation was the highest it has ever been. Most of you do not know anything about a union either. My step dad has been a union steelworker for 16 years now and my girlfriends dad has been a union electrician for about 30 years. Go out and have a non union worker fix something in your house and then have a union worker fix something. The quality and assurance you will get from the union worker will be second to none. The pay cut would have only delayed the inevitable. Like others have previously mentioned, Hostess was crippled because of declining revenue, not because their employees were treated fairly and paid a living wage. The management is to blame for this, they have led the company into bankruptcy TWICE now in the last 10 years. A reorg may or may not worked in this situation, but I can assure you that there are quite a few tax consequences that pertain to reorgs. They are quite complicated and take many different forms, I do not know enough of the specifics to say whether one would have worked or not. If you people do not know enough about business to understand why they fail, then don't post on the subject, stick to football.

I used to install fire sprinkler systems for a private compnay and the Unions tried to gt us to jump on board 2 or 3 times a year so i know what that one union offered. I am not saying i am an expert about unions either. But i am in th fire dept with people from power companies, sheet metal unions, Ex duponters. So i do listen to what they are saying and most of them will tell unions hurt them just as much as they help you. Not to mention if you haven't followed super storm Sandy the union workers cost about extra line crews. ANd for you to say a union worker does better work then a non union worker is the dumbest thing i have ever heard. I have no cluse about the Steel union that you know about but the sprinkler union i talked to was all about doing less work for more money. Doing that kind of work i worked with other guys that were part of unions that would tell that alot of the times made talks more complicated then they needed to be.

 

[scUM Hater]

I AM A UNION MEMBER AND DAMN PROUD!!!!! I see the quality of my fellow workers compared to non-union sector and I would say ours is superior. Are Unions perfect, no. But stop and imagine the wages and conditions you would be at without Unions. China anyone? If you stop and look at corporations and the money dispersions, the CEO's and board members individually make more money a year than their employees. Think about that. WAKE UP............

 

[scUM Hater]

Wonder how much the Hostess CEO and board members are walking away with. Guarantee they kept their pensions. Crookedness and greediness in this country has to stop.

 

[greyhammer90]

Good. This is akin to a cigarette company going out of business. They make poison.

Stop at the one that makes you a hypocrite. Then scroll down to the bottom.

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

Stop at the one that makes you a hypocrite. Then scroll down to the bottom.

bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

 

[scUM Hater]

I am suddenly thirsty and hungry

 

[ndcoltsfan2010]

TWINKIES:

They can survive a nuclear explosion, but still no match against our economy.

RIP

+1. Priceless! Absolutely hilarious!

 

[drayer54]

No, they are all bad at this point.

There is no argument on earth that could convince me that a janitor for a car company deserves 70k a year. And a sweet pension.

They served their purpose at one point, now unions are as greedy as the companies that they complain about...


Besides, let your hard work do the talking. What does any self respecting person need a union for?

Unions are greedy but executive compensation is normal? People who want to earn more money and would like annual raises are greedy?

Unions are about more than wages. They are about protecting workers rights, negotiating better work conditions such as call ins or forced overtime, and representing hard working people with better resources.

I'm in a union with general laborers, physicists, chemists, licensed engineers, electricians, mechanics, and other skilled workers. Many are well educated and most of us earn a decent wage. We have some people who earn up to $150K and are covered union members. I'm not saying that some have gone too far before or weren't perfect. Our wages are comparable to our non-union counterparts, but when the company tries to shove crappy healthcare plans or forced overtime on us, we have a voice. I'm glad you can find an example to point at and apply to all of the big bad unions, but I think you are missing the big picture.

 

[Irish YJ]

Best headline / rant I heard today....

Obama Killed the Ding Dong

 

[RallySonsOfND]

Unions are greedy but executive compensation is normal? People who want to earn more money and would like annual raises are greedy?

Unions are about more than wages. They are about protecting workers rights, negotiating better work conditions such as call ins or forced overtime, and representing hard working people with better resources.

I'm in a union with general laborers, physicists, chemists, licensed engineers, electricians, mechanics, and other skilled workers. Many are well educated and most of us earn a decent wage. We have some people who earn up to $150K and are covered union members. I'm not saying that some have gone too far before or weren't perfect. Our wages are comparable to our non-union counterparts, but when the company tries to shove crappy healthcare plans or forced overtime on us, we have a voice. I'm glad you can find an example to point at and apply to all of the big bad unions, but I think you are missing the big picture.

A main difference between Union and compensation for executives (bonuses and the like), is that compensation is based on how the year went. Their bonuses are directly tied to profits, whereas Unions don't want their earnings based on how the business is actually doing, but rather contracted in no matter how the company did.

 

[drayer54]

They get their compensation in stock (primarily) and that reflects performance. Sure! We get 401k matching, small scale. We get gainshare payments based on performance. When our industry was hurting due to nat gas plants coming up.... we got a much smaller raise than normal this year at 1.7%. My CEO went from 11 million to 16 million.

Again, just feels like a general statement to me.

 

[phork]

All unions are bad? Wow. In regards to the CEOs, how about the idiots who bombed the economy in the first place with these good for **** mortgages? Everyone of those people should be thrown in jail.

Now, imagine a world (you can because it happens in China and Vietnam) where you are crawling into machines with no lock out procedures. Because frankly if anything happens to you, there are 10 more wanting your $1/month job.

Imagine having your job broken down into hundredths of a second and losing your job because of it. If you think there is no place for a union in this world you've lead a charmed life.

Back in the day there was a part of town called Ford City. Named as such because Henry Ford built 2 plants there. He also built row housing to house his workers. One of the criteria of your employment was having supervision visit your house. And if you were unfortunate to have a wife or a daughter, they might end up spending some time with them, in order for you to be on the line the next day.

So continue down the path. Destroy unions and watch the standard of living plummet to unseen depths. And when its you next and your job next don't look for support. Because there will always be someone willing to do your job for half your wage.

 

[4irishnation]

So now unions keep our wives and children from being raped. WOW UNIONS ARE WONDERFUL

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

A main difference between Union and compensation for executives (bonuses and the like), is that compensation is based on how the year went. Their bonuses are directly tied to profits, whereas Unions don't want their earnings based on how the business is actually doing, but rather contracted in no matter how the company did.

If I'm not mistaken, didn't after the bank bailouts, the exec's of said institutions gave themselves a pretty handsome bonus off of our money? lol Not arguing, brah...but I remember that happening and being extremely pissed off about it. The banks were about as dismal as you could get back then and they still rewarded themselves with their Golden Parachute.

 

[Ndaccountant]

CEO's are well compensated, but do we really understand what it means to be a CEO of a major corporation? I think people are dramatically underestimating the knowledge, skillset and devotion it takes to becoming a CEO. And for the most part, the amount of time they can spend in that position is limited. Personally, you couldn't pay me enough to take the CEO position of my company. I simply don't want that life......its not worth it.

 

[NDPhilly]

Who the hell needs Twinkies when you have Tastycakes.

 

[Irishnuke]

The good sign is that not enough people bought them for them to stay in business so maybe America is wising up to the garbage we are being fed.

Is there anything that you don't complain about or put a negative spin on?

 

[Rhode Irish]

Good. This is akin to a cigarette company going out of business. They make poison.

Hooray for Rhode Irish and Buster Bluth agreement. I get nauseous thinking about eating one of those things. Never had one, and glad that I never will.