twinkie's gone???

If they go, it will be for a short time. Twinkies have been around too long to just disappear. I know a lot of the drivers from Interstate Bakeries. (Hostess, Wonder Bread, Drakes). This has been going down for awhile. They`re the ones I feel bad for. The bakers refused to go back to work after being warned that this would happen

I never was a Hostess fan, but hey......It's American icon.

there is some word the pabst brewing co is thinking of buying them. Looks like the teamsters union agreed on terms and the bakers union did not.

Thank you. It has been hard the past few years with all the Union bashing.

If one were exceptionally biased or naive then one could do what it seems the republican's are doing: Blaming the Unions for all of our problems. It is easy to point at one thing and blame them. Funny thing about the "Blame the Union Game" is that it did not start until the taxpayers started demanding accountability of the TARP funding. Once that happened the Unions became targeted.

Deserved? Like any other entity some of the blame is deserved but much of what one hears is not. No, Unions do not belong in every facet of our business climate. Yes, Unions, as in the apparent case of Hostess, can be a problem. But, before one goes and blames unions perhaps one should think of why they are there in the first place.

I hated unions. In 1978 the Ironworkers Union tried to shut down my family company. They struck just as we accepted a contract to do a job that would either make or break the company. They struck knowing the score and hoping to use the job as a bargaining chip. The whole family jumped in to help along with some non-union labor. I remember, as an eighth-grader running steel through an Ironworker machine and then handing it off to my 4'11" aunt to weld it to another piece. We got the job done, the union members decertified and went back to work for the company with everything they asked for....Except the ability to strike.

When I became a firefighter I had to join. I was very reluctant until the union stepped in a stood down a chief who seemed to make it his life's goal to harass me. I did not step forward nor did I ask the union to intervene. They did anyway.

Unions have done stuff like that for years. No one ever hears about that, only the bad stuff-the "Hoffa" stuff.

It is funny that the CEO of ATT (In 1992) can lay off 17k employees and get a 17 million dollar bonus but Unions are not allowed to stand up for workers. When did defending a worker become a bad thing? Why is it ok for the Koch Brothers, et-al try to limit Union political contributions but allow corporate contributions and PAC contributions to remain?

It is funny that politicians are more than willing to give corporations BILLIONS of dollars in the biggest welfare award ever yet try to silence the voice of the working class. It is funny that many voters would vote for a law to limit unions but allow corporations the freedom to act in any manner they want. Often those actions of the corporations do not take in to account how the "Regular Joe's" will be affected.

Just as we have three aspects of government: Judicial, Executive, Legislature to provide accountability and fairness we have Unions to do the same in the business world. Take it away and we have nothing looking out for the majority of our workers.

From 1969 til the mid 80's I belonged to the OCAW (Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers)  During the 70's we were on strike 3 times (3 months in '74, 4 months in '76, 8 months in '79).  In the middle of all of that 3 of my 4 kids were born.  My dad, who had just retired from the construction trades union remarked how much money I was making in '77 when daughter #2 was born.  I argued that things were better back in 1950 when I was born. My mother had kept every check stub my dad ever made, so we pulled out the stub from the week  I was born in March, 1950.  He was making $2.10 an hour working construction at the steel mill. Out of that, taxes (Fed, FICA, etc) took $6.00, leaving him $78 for the week.  The doctor bill for my birth was $25 (Mom still had receipts), hospital bill was $25 and there was still enough left over to buy groceries for the week - all out of one check!  After taxes, etc were taken out of my check, it would have taken every dime for 17 weeks to pay the doctor and hospital bills. (Thank God I had insurance).  Things sure weren't better after 27 years.

People like to blame the Reagan years but union membership peaked in the late 50's, early 60's.  From data I found on-line, union membership was at 31.4% of the work force in 1960.  During the Kennedy/ Johnson years it dropped 4% to 27.4% in 1970.  During the Nixon/Ford/Carter years it dropped 5.5% so that by 1980 it was 21.9%.  During the Reagan years it dropped 5.8 % to 16.1% although AFL-CIO membership actually increased.  It was the small independent unions that dropped membership during this time. During the Clinton years it dropped another 2.5% to 13.5% and finally during the younger Bush years it dropped 1.6% so that by 2010 only 11.9 % were unionized.

Of the 46 years I spent in the work force, exactly half was spent as a union member (retail clerk's union, construction trades, paper mill workers, oil/chemical/atomic workers, IBEW). Not all was a good experience, but for those who work for a company which produces a profit from their labor, I feel it is their right to join together to receive their fair share and withdraw their labor as a bargaining chip.  For those who work in public service, it's OK to unionize for worker protection but I object to strikes which impact fellow citizens.

One thing is for sure.  As a nation we need to develop new processes and industries which will provide a decent wage for our work force.  We can't sell each other insurance and fry each other hamburgers forever.

DE

I'm enjoying reading these posts.  You all know I'm pro union.  My dad was a member of and heavily involved in the BLE (Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers) while I was growing up, and my husband is a Union Ironworker.  I too worked in a Union at one time.  I was a member of the Teamster's Union over 10 years ago.  Back then, I made the same wage I do now but also had insurance.  It was still difficult then to support myself and my son as a single mom, but it sure was a lot easier then.  I could never do it NOW at the same wage without insurance.  I don't know how people can do the same job my husband does for a measely $10/hr and zero benefits.  God bless them, and know this... that company is making OVER $20 more per hour off your work than the company that pays my husband (and the company that pays my husband is doing quite well).  A little more into the workers pocket and a little less into the guy sitting in the fancy office chair, and this country would be a little nicer to be in for those that were ONCE upper middle class but are now lower middle class and teetering on being at poverty level.

I too agree, sometimes Unions go too far... don't get me wrong... there is no perfection or utopia... but there is "better" and "worse".

What's really sad about the whole Hostess debacle is the fact that, like Jerome said, someone got rich while the average Joe is now out of a job. 

Just dont be the sucker on e-bay who pays 34 budks for 6 boxes.

Yeah - you say that now. Don't come knocking on my bunker door on nuclear holocaust day and ask for a single 1 of my 200 cases of Twinkies.

My guitar playing would be enough to drive off the zombies