Hostess: Twinkies Returning To Shelves In July So it really benefited the union to be recalcitrant-thousands lost their jobs and aren’t getting them back. Yay, unions! Via Newsmax: Hostess is betting on a sweet comeback for Twinkies when they return to shelves next month. The company that went bankrupt after an acrimonious fight with its unionized workers last year is back up and running under new owners and a leaner structure. It says it plans to have Twinkies and other snack cakes back on shelves starting July 15. Based on the outpouring of nostalgia sparked by its demise, Hostess is expecting a blockbuster return next month for Twinkies and other sugary treats, such as CupCakes and Donettes. The company says the cakes will taste the same but that the boxes will now bare the tag line “The Sweetest Comeback In The History Of Ever.” “A lot of impostor products have come to the market while Hostess has been off the shelves,” says Daren Metropoulos, a principal of the investment firm Metropoulos & Co., which teamed up with Apollo Global Management to buy a variety of Hostess snacks. Hostess Brands Inc. was struggling for years before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in early 2012. Workers blamed the troubles on years of mismanagement, as well as a failure of executives to invest in brands to keep up with changing tastes. The company said it was weighed down by higher pension and medical costs than its competitors, whose employees weren’t unionized. To steer it through its bankruptcy reorganization, Hostess hired restructuring expert Greg Rayburn as its CEO. But Rayburn ultimately failed to reach a contract agreement with its second largest union. In November, he blamed striking workers for crippling the company’s ability to maintain normal production and announced that Hostess would liquidate. The shuttering triggered a rush on Hostess snack cakes, with stores selling out of the most popular brands within hours. About 15,000 unionized workers lost their jobs in the aftermath. http://www.newsmax.com/US/twinkies-hostess/2013/06/23/id/511391
U.S. Union Boss Praises Violent Protesters In Brazil, Warns America May See Same If More Taxpayer Money Isn’t Coughed Up… Typical union goon. Via Washington Times: The leader of the global Amalgamated Transit Union, headquartered in Washington, D.C., said the violence that’s spreading through the streets of Brazil is a good example of solidarity and citizens’ action, and that the United States might soon see the same. The Brazilian protests — which has spilled up to 1 million into the streets, leading to clashes with police, arrests and injuries, and at least one death — show “what can be achieved by standing strong together to fight against bus and subway fare hikes,” said Larry Hanley, president of the ATU, which represents transportation workers around the world. The same could occur in the United States if the government doesn’t start giving more subsidies for transportation expenses, he said, Watchdog.org reported. “The Brazilian protests should also serve as a warning to all politicians that they will jeopardize their own political future if they ignore the needs of the burgeoning number of public transportation users in the United States and Canada,” Mr. Hanley said in the Watchdog.org report. Protesters began rallying in Brazil a week ago, in part due to a scheduled transit fare increase that will fund system improvements, in anticipation of heavier demand during next year’s World Cup.
National Teachers Union Gives Themselves A “Round Of Applause” For “Not Losing As Many Members As Projected”… The quicker the unions die the better this country will be off. Via Washington Examiner: National Education Association Secretary-Treasurer Becky Pringle told the assembled delegates at the union’s annual assembly in Atlanta this week what passes for good news in the organized labor movement these days. “We are still losing members but we are not losing as many members as we projected in the budget last year. So give yourselves a round of applause!” she said, according to a report on the Education Intelligence Agency’s blog. This meant the NEA had $6.6 million more in its budget than it originally projected. The union’s leadership has already found an excellent use for this money: reversing planned cuts to their salary and benefits and those of their staffers. http://washingtonexaminer.com/teachers-union-the-good-news-is-we-are-losing-fewer-members-than-expected/article/2532682
Republican Leaders Demand To Know Why IRS Pays 201 Employees To Do Full-Time Union Work Incredibly Ridiculous Spending. Via Daily Caller: Republican congressional leaders are demanding to know why the Internal Revenue Service pays hundreds of full-time employees to do union work. As reported last month by The Daily Caller, 201 IRS employees receive full-time pay while doing no actual work, instead devoting their entire work days to union business. The revelation came as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request from Americans for Limited Government. “Recently, it has come to our attention that the IRS pays a number of employees full time salaries, funded by taxpayer dollars, for work they do not perform. Instead, these employees spend their time working for government employee unions,” according to a letter sent to IRS acting commissioner Danny Werfel by Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia. http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/03/coburn-gingrey-demand-answers-on-201-full-time-irs-union-reps/
Obama’s New Nominees To Pro-Union NLRB “Picked In Consultation” With AFL-CIO Boss Richard Trumka… One cannot underestimate the power the unions hold over this administration. Via Politico: New nominees to replace a pair of recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board could come as soon as Tuesday afternoon, two sources said. As part of the deal to avoid the so-called nuclear option, Republicans have agreed not to block replacement nominees for Richard Griffin and Sharon Block. The two replacement candidates have been picked today in consultation with AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka and will be announced by the White House this week. In return for removing President Obama’s recess appointees to the board, Democrats won agreement to have a functioning NLRB through 2014, including a future nominee for a slot opening up on the board next year. In return the GOP was able to scuttle the recess appointees that have been declared illegal by Republicans and whose constitutionality will come before the Supreme Court later this year.
Chicago’s Teachers Union Goes To Honduras To Talk About American “Cruelty” And “Revolution” With Former Leftist President Manuel Zelaya… Of course we already know about the CTU’s radical leftist tendencies. Via EAGnews: By the looks of things, Chicago’s education system must be in tip-top shape. Why else would members of the Chicago Teachers Unions be jetting around the world and focusing on global issues rather than the academic issues facing their district? For two weeks at the end of June, about 20 teachers and students traveled to Honduras to meet with their teachers union counterparts from that country, to learn about the “Honduran resistance movement,” and meet with the deposed former president, Mel Zelaya, according to an account posted on Honduras Resists. The published account states members of the CTU met with Zelaya to exchange ideas “about the struggle for a world where human lives have more value than private profit.” Is the CTU planning to bring a Central American style revolution to the U.S.? Victoria [last name redacted], a 17-year-old Chicago high school student, said of her meeting with Zelaya, a one-time ally of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, “Meeting the ex-president was powerful and intriguing. This meeting gave me hope. The president had a thought that not one politician in the U.S. has acknowledged, ‘what can I do to help those who doesn’t [sic] have everything they need?’ It gives me hope but it also puts into perspective the cruelty of the U.S. government. Our system needs to be torn down and rebuilt with the bricks of freedom, peace, humanity and this can be achieved through revolution.” http://eagnews.org/chicago-union-teachers-students-travel-to-honduras-to-discuss-u-s-revolution/
Obama’s Union Overlords Demand He Bailout Detroit… No surprise, half of Detroit’s $18 billion debt is due to the ridiculously unsustainable pensions the city gives to its unionized workers. Via The Hill: Union leaders are calling on Congress and President Obama to provide a federal bailout to the city of Detroit. The executive council of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, called for an “immediate infusion of federal assistance for Detroit” to be matched by Michigan, which they say has not done enough to keep the city from going through bankruptcy. “Bankruptcy must not be used as a tool to impoverish city of Detroit workers or retirees. City workers have already made severe concessions to keep the city afloat,” the executive council said in a statement. “They are not to blame for Detroit’s financial problems, yet they have been making sacrifices all along the way to help the city out.” The executive council, which consists of more than 50 leaders from various organized labor groups, are angry about pensions for retired workers facing suspension if Detroit goes through Chapter 6 bankruptcy. “It appears that Governor [Rick] Snyder and [Emergency Financial Manager] Kevyn Orr are pushing Detroit into bankruptcy to gut the modest benefits received by Detroit’s retired public service employees,” the AFL-CIO’s statement reads.
What hypocritical audacity. The unions are not to blame for the city's financial problems? Who the hell had been backing these corrupt, inept Democratic regimes all these years? (Detroit has a city worker for every 55 residents of the city. Compare that with Indianapolis that has 1 for every 115) And then there's the ******** about the state not doing enough for Detroit. Last Jan. the governor proposed that the state could lease the park on Belle Isle and maintain it. It would save the city millions. The jackoffs who sit on the city council couldn't agree to the offer. They were afraid that "the man" would be stealing their property. http://www.freep.com/article/20130130/NEWS01/301300119/Detroit-City-Council-puts-off-Belle-Isle-vote-so-Snyder-pulls-offer-to-run-it-as-state-park Detroit is the tip of the ice berg. You know some day, California is going to be in need of a bailout.
AFL-CIO’s Membership Plummets Troubled by huge debts and a plummeting membership AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumpka (pictured above) seeks to expand membership beyond unions into organizations such as the NAACP. Via USAToday: WASHINGTON — Calling the labor movement in crisis, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says he will push far-reaching changes at the federation’s convention next month, including forging closer partnerships and even accepting as members such outside groups as the Sierra Club and the NAACP. The changes, some of which will require amending the AFL-CIO’s bylaws, are part of a strategy aimed at reviving the labor movement’s falling clout and recasting it as a champion for American workers generally, not just for the declining ranks of dues-paying union members. In an interview Wednesday with USA TODAY, Trumka acknowledged resistance within his organization and the possibility of conflicts ahead. “I think any time you do new things and you have change, people are concerned about what it means,” he said on the weekly video newsmaker series, Capital Download. “Will it dilute us? Look, here’s the way I look at it: What we’ve been doing the last 30 years hasn’t worked real well. We need to do things differently.”
Harry Reid Tells Unions To Stop Criticizing Obamacare… Dingy criticizing the unions is a borderline flying pig moment. Via Washington Examiner: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Friday suggested that labor unions critical of Obamacare should stop “frightening people” with their criticism of the law and how its implementation might hurt their members’ insurance. [...] When the interviewer raised the concerns of a Nevada labor activist, who criticized Obamacare because he feared it would hurt union members’ health insurance coverage, Reid had this to say: “He’s exaggerating. … I would recommend that he calm down and stop frightening people.” However, Reid did appear to acknowledge that union members could lose access to some of their more generous health care policies, referred to as “Cadillac” plans. Note- My younger son, Eric, is a Teamster with one of those Cadillac health care plans and he's concerned about this. After years of negotiating and head busting...along comes Obama to TAX his health care as if it were earned income. My teacher's union is also upset about this. Obamacare doesn't just destroy the Mineworkers... it uses the IRS to dip into the pockets of Teamsters, Teachers, Dockworkers, Autoworkers, and Machinists. It screws every working person in the country...
And then there are the aides to Ried and others in Congress. They're going to be getting subsidized by the American taxpayer to pay their Obamacare premiums. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/355176/congresss-obamacare-waiver-michael-f-cannon What a two-faced snake these Democrats are. They piss on teamsters for complaining and yet they get themselves subsidies.