For a simple lesson on the destructive costs of
unions on American business, and Hostess in particular:
Hostess posted a $341 million loss in 2011 on
revenues of about $2.5 billion. Contributing to those 2011 losses:
$52 million in Workers’ Comp Claims.
Dealing with 372 Distinct Collective-Bargaining
Contracts.
Administration of 80 Separate Health and Benefits
Plans.
Funding and Tending to 40 Discrete Pension Plans.
$31 million in year-over-year increases in wages
and health care benefits for 2011 v. 2010.
Uncounted in the above numbers were the outrageous
union-imposed rules that contributed to a “too-high-to-bear cost” of
sales, such as:
No truck was allowed to 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
Carrying products from back rooms to sales shelves
required an entirely different group 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
The not-spoken-of issue is that of the 18,500
people that lost their jobs, some 60% had already agreed to the new
contract. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (with 6,700
members’ jobs on the line) approved of the same concessionary contract
that Hostess was seeking of the Bakers’ union.
Only 5,300 Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers
and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) refused to sign the contract.
Therefore, because of only 29% of the workers,
18,500 people have just been dumped jobless into the worst employment
economy in recent history just before Christmas. And guess who will be
responsible for paying their unemployment checks?

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM YOUR UNION