They killed the Twinkie? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Scott Walker is a shoo-in for 2016 now.

Unions in many ways represent democracy.

Take away unions and the ability to go on strike and you might well soon end up being the Soviet States of America.

the only Unions I am against are public sector employee unions. That is only because as a voting block public sector unions basically just vote themselves raises out of tax payer money. Any other unions I am fine with, but they must be careful not to price themselves out of the market.

I mostly agree with your subject, for a company like Hostess, in trouble, in bankruptcy, but 1/3 of its workers being unionized and demanding more money (instead of the 8% paycut due to the bankruptcy) now will cost every single employee at that company 100% of their pay. Super awesome job there! Unlike the government, private companies are unable to print any amount of money they want.

Unions can provide legal and financial support for members.  You couldn't manage that on your own.

Almost any employee is replaceable and they are many employers who treat their staff like crap.

Now don't mis-understand me, I understand the annoyances of unions. But I believe they play their part in a free democratic world.

I would be far more worried if I live in a country that followed the communist doctrine of making strikes illegal.

More or less this (although i think teacher's unions should be around, just because of how petty and small-minded school-boards can be. State governments are usually fairer than school boards). Arguably we need more and stronger private sector unions, and we need especially to unionize low-wage jobs like fast-food and retail.

The only reason people are really mad about public sector unions is that they get demands that "normal workers don't get anymore." Well, why not? Simply because normal workers have lost their backbones, and need to get together and get back some of the benefits their parents had, or more.

But it is important that they not price themselves out of the market. In an ideal world, organized labor shouldn't be antagonistic, they should be partners in building a solid, reputable business, where workers are treated well and management still has room to grow.

Union themselves are not the problem. It how they behave sometimes that cause troubles. The most successful economies of the world (scandinavian countries) have a very hight percentage of firms with unions. But they usually work at both improving the working conditions and the productivity of the enterprise. Views as one expressed in the OP are typically american (or north-american) and show a poor understanding of other successful economic models abroad.

I just think the american way of the unions is silly, they need one big strong union (well, that is internally split in seven smaller ones) like we have in Austria so that if one company messes up the whole industry gets one in the face :P

But seriously, you can't treat your workers like your livestock, people need money to live and if you cut their wages, of course they don't want to work for you if you don't pay them accordingly to their work.

I don't know how it works in the US, but in Austria, you pay the union money, so that when you go on strike, you do not have to go to work in order to receive your payment, because while the union declared strike it pays you, instead of your (probably stupid) employer.

Interestingly, people in jobs without a mentionable union representation are paid worse than other jobs on avg. and people working in such jobs often have more difficulties on their workplace.

I may add that Austria is pretty much strike free, if you visit http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/ you can view some comparisons on strike days for Europe. While a union misusing the powers it was given by it's members is just as bad as employer who don't treat their human capital rightfully, I have to say I am glad we have such a strong union in Austria (though it gradually grows weaker over time).

Strong we stand, as one union ;P

BTW, economy kills or lets businesses live, not unions, IMO.

I hope they hurt the US though, at least something can hurt that monolith of egoism and narcissims ;O (anti-US opinion away~) *flies away*

Twinkies will be fine.

When they get liquidized Kraft or somebody else will buy the Twinkie formula and name along with the other popular ones and make thier own non union versions that can go up against Little Debbie.


That said, when it comes to unions, i agree with Thranx and Khan. Private unions yes, Public unions no... and private unions need to be smarter.

I mean, the Bakers union seems to be a prime example.  Falling on their sword simply to spite them.

They better hope they're lucky and somebody actually bids on ther existing contract or whatever said contract is tied to... (If anything.)

I despise modern unions. To me the large ones act just as hypocritical as anonymous.