Arcane union rules tanked Hostess

Harder to Digest than Twinkies
Excerpt:

• No truck could carry both bread and snacks even when going to the same location
• Drivers were not permitted to load their own trucks
• Workers who loaded bread were not allowed to also load snacks
• Bringing products from back rooms to shelves required another set of union employees
• Multi-Employer pension obligations made Hostess liable for other, previously bankrupted, retirement plan contributions from employees that never worked for Hostess at all

Comment: Full article has much more

Hostess strikers: "Do it, shut it down"

Striking workers defy Hostess' demands - Company is expected to announce Friday whether it will follow through on threats to shut down

Excerpt:

Production at about a dozen of the company’s 33 plants, including the longtime Indianapolis plant at Shadeland Avenue and 30th Street, has been seriously affected by the strike, said Lance Ignon, a Hostess spokesman. He said a decision on liquidating the company may not come until this morning, after it’s had a chance to assess plant operations late Thursday. “Do it, shut it down,” a woman yelled at 5 p.m. Thursday from the picket line formed at the East 30th Street gate of the Indianapolis plant. As many as 45 people in the picket line chanted, “No pension, no deal,” as they walked a tight circle in the growing cold and gathering darkness.

Comment: The WSJ has complete coverage today. Ironically the brands will probably live on (perhaps Grupo Bimbo) but 18,000 workers are on the street.

The U.A.W.: the enemy of turning around the Big Three

Comment: The Big Three is more like the Big One (GM), the Half Pint (Ford), and the Dwarf (Chrysler).

Seeking Aid, Automakers Have a Friend in the U.A.W.

Excerpts:

Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Automobile Workers union says:

“It’s not just G.M. going bankrupt, ... It’s all the rest of the industry that goes with it. Two of the three companies would go under, and there’s a high probability all three would go.”

The problem (high wages relative to Honda, Nissan, Toyota - even in the US where these "foreign" makers have plants!):

Mr. Gettelfinger expects the union to be labeled part of Detroit’s problems, and to defend its $27-an-hour wages and top-of-the-line health care benefits and pensions.

...

... union rules that provide workers with 95 percent of their wages while on layoff and other job-security provisions.

The Future of the U.A.W. is at stake.

“The future of the U.A.W. will be determined over the next two weeks,” said Gary N. Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University. “If G.M. goes bankrupt or doesn’t get a bailout, it’s just going to be a shadow of what it was 50 years ago.”

Why the Democrats care so much (and the Republicans so little!):

The U.A.W. was instrumental in the pivotal victories in Michigan and Ohio by Barack Obama in the presidential election, and two union loyalists in Michigan, Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm and former Representative David E. Bonior, are members of Mr. Obama’s economic advisory team.

Why bankruptcy of GM is better than a bailout:

A carmaker’s bankruptcy would abrogate workers’ contracts

Final comment: A bailout of GM would not solve the seminal problems: high labor costs, rigid Union rules, and bad management.

Depriving workers of the secret union ballot

Card Tricks: Harry Reid hopes to help unions deprive workers of their right to vote

Excerpt:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to hold a vote this Wednesday on perhaps the most unpopular element of the Democratic agenda. The Employee Free Choice Act has already passed the House, but now it faces real hurdles in the Senate because, contrary to the name, it undermines workplace democracy.

Under the so-called card-check bill, a company would no longer have the right to demand a secret-ballot election to certify a union, thus stripping 140 million American workers of the right to decide in private whether to organize.

Republican senators, except possibly Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, are uniformly opposed to the idea. "We went to the secret ballot in the early 1800s in this country for a darn good reason: If somebody's looking over your shoulder, your ballot doesn't mean much," Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says, noting fears of intimidation by unions should the bill pass.

Comment: The Democrat's attempt to muscle workers to satisfy a narrow constituency! Read it and weep!