So The House Has Passed Right To Work.

[CaveatLector]

You see the protestors at the Capitol today? Thousands strong all over town there. THOUSANDS. Both in and outside the Cap. bldg. Reminded me of what happened with the teachers over in Wisconsin.

 

The reason I point this out is because the protest did ZERO to affect the passing of right to work. Yet some think that a few hundred unorganized people have routinely "had the legislators running scared." Or, "stopped them in their tracks."

 

I hope this puts things in perspective for those who thought/think a protest would change anything at all.

 

Here is a video showing a few hundred inside the rotunda. This video doesn't do justice to the masses outside.

 

 

 

[bobandtorey]

They are so out of touch with the people of Michigan

[CaveatLector]

They are so out of touch with the people of Michigan

Actually I saw a poll this morning that showed people are almost 50/50 on right to work. A poll last marched showed 58% support for right to work.

[cristinew]

protest did ZERO ,,,,,Nothing will stop the GOP in Michigan, The attack on workers voters cannabis patients, and many others is in full force,,

 

Shame on the Michigan republican party,, My brother served in Combat for the right to vote , and they are disrespecting our voters and veterans,, What disrespect ,

[CaveatLector]

protest did ZERO ,,,,,Nothing will stop the GOP in Michigan, The attack on workers voters cannabis patients, and many others is in full force,,

 

Shame on the Michigan republican party,, My brother served in Combat for the right to vote , and they are disrespecting our voters and veterans,, What disrespect ,

Frankly, right to work isn't an attack on workers. It simply allows one to work somewhere without being forced to join a union. I have family whom hated being forced to pay union dues just to work where they did. In their view the amount they paid the union was so far removed form the benefit received.

[+washtenaut]

The reason I point this out is because the protest did ZERO to affect the passing of right to work. Yet some think that a few hundred unorganized people have routinely "had the legislators running scared." Or, "stopped them in their tracks."

 

I hope this puts things in perspective for those who thought/think a protest would change anything at all.

 

 

 

Protests aren't necessarily going to change the immediate votes. With protests though, awareness of this issue is heightened. Just like with the cannabis protests. We try to get some press to raise awareness of the injustice. Without the protest, the same law would pass, that is true. The hope is that with awareness and time, the votes will change.

[cristinew]

But i am sure the job they had was better that working at the family dollar,

[CaveatLector]

But i am sure the job they had was better that working at the family dollar,

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? They were college educated and in the healthcare field. Unions don't have the same usefulness that they had 80 years ago when they were necessary for safety, etc. I heard a statistic today on WJR on the Frank Beckman show that indicated only 20% of workers are unionized in Michigan. Why should someone be forced to join a union in order to work for GM?

[+Malamute]

We can still run a referendum against that RTW bill.

[thanks2]

Isn't this a win for liberty? I am not about forcing people to do things against their will. Am I missing something? Unions are basically large corporations, why should they be able to be like the borg and grow their ranks through threats and intimidation of the individual worker? It is a freedom thing far as I can see it and a win for choice and personal liberty. If the unions take care of their workers, people will still line up to join. If the unions abuse their workers and follow personal agendas, their people can hold them responsible and opt out.

[Chauncy Gardner]

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? They were college educated and in the healthcare field. Unions don't have the same usefulness that they had 80 years ago when they were necessary for safety, etc. I heard a statistic today on WJR on the Frank Beckman show that indicated only 20% of workers are unionized in Michigan. Why should someone be forced to join a union in order to work for GM?

 

The Republicans have been after unions for years. Any chance they get to cut the legs out from under unions they take - and with glee. They have neutered the unions. I am really surprised that they have gotten away with it for so long. Apparently a majority of people believe that unions don't do any good. I think that the reason union membership has fallen so low is because of the Republican's efforts to make it difficult for unions to operate. The reason a worker is forced to join the union in a unionized shop is to make sure that no one working there gets a free ride (gets the benefits of unionization w/o paying for those benefits). Unions will make a comeback as soon as people get tired of being jacked around by their employers. In the meantime, Republicans are going to craft laws that will make it nearly impossible for any group of workers to form a union. People will turn on the Republicans as soon as they realize that the Republicans are not on the side of the average working Joe.

[masonrat]

Safety on the job? I buried a friend back in December 2004 right before his Birthday, Christmas and his sons birth. I work for a good sized non union construction company I wish that I could afford to stand up for my rights like some of the union construction workers I know do. If I stand up for my rights at work I would not have a job.

[+Malamute]

We can still run a referendum against that RTW bill.

 

 

"The legislature added an appropriation of state funds to the right to work bill, which eliminates the possibility of it getting overturned by referendum."

[+Malamute]

The Republicans are just scummy.

[CaveatLector]

Safety on the job? I buried a friend back in December 2004 right before his Birthday, Christmas and his sons birth. I work for a good sized non union construction company I wish that I could afford to stand up for my rights like some of the union construction workers I know do. If I stand up for my rights at work I would not have a job.

We have MIOSHA now. We didn't have that when unions first formed. If you have job safety issues you could easily anonymously call MIOSHA.

[+Malamute]

MIOSHA is underfunded and understaffed.

 

We still need organization to force administrative responsibility.

[t-pain]

yep, thats the problem. no one alive remembers what it was like before we had unions.

 

so the repubs will ban the unions for a while. back to the 12 or 14hour work day, back to the no paid vacation, back to the no paid maternity leave, back to no dental, no medical, no health insurance. all so the CEO can get a 2 mil bonus and the stock of the company goes up .01%.

 

and then people will realize that together, they can bargain to get better benefits. and we'll have the 1930s strikebusters all over again.

 

if unions werent needed, would any members in the union be fighting for it? no.

 

all that said, unions do some bad things. and businesses do some really bad things and then blame the unions.

its not a perfect system.

 

also, i heard rick snyder say he supports 'collective bargaining' on the radio. that making whoopee liar was saying the opposite before the election when collective bargaining was a ballot proposal he said to vote against lol.

Edited December 7, 2012 by t-pain

[CaveatLector]

 

also, i heard rick snyder say he supports 'collective bargaining' on the radio. that making whoopee liar was saying the opposite before the election when collective bargaining was a ballot proposal he said to vote against lol.

The ballot proposal you are referring to was being pushed by interest groups. They made tv ads acting as if the ballot proposal was protecting protective bargaining. Fact is the bargaining rights they were referring to are already guranteed by federal law. They duped you. Did you also fall for the Matty Maroun's bridge ads?

[El Tiberon]

Were any jobs lost in Michigan due to Hostess folding?

[CaveatLector]

Were any jobs lost in Michigan due to Hostess folding?

I know that there were some Hostess outlet stores in Michigan. Those certainly closed. Don't know about any manufacturing though.

[mibrains]

this is the first i heard hostess is closed... where have i been LOL

what a dam shame...

 

makes me really sad on a personal level... my parents owned a 7-11 growing up i ate every hostess product available...

 

68 million a year from Twinkies... come on who the hell can't balance a billion dollar a year company... i blame the CEO and management...with dollars and a market share like ding dongs and Twinkies have there is no...absolutely no excuse to not keep up with the market...

 

http://www.google.co...c480f38faf7ee7a

 

Twinkie maker Hostess reaches the end of the line

By CANDICE CHOI, Associated Press – Nov 16, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) — Twinkies may not last forever after all.

Hostess Brands Inc., the maker of the spongy snack with a mysterious cream filling, said Friday it would shutter after years of struggling with management turmoil, rising labor costs and the ever-changing tastes of Americans even as its pantry of sugary cakes seemed suspended in time.

Some beloved Hostess brands such as Ding Dongs and Ho Ho's likely will be snapped up by buyers and find a second life, but for now the company says its snack cakes should be on shelves for another week or so. The news stoked an outpouring of nostalgia around kitchen tables, water coolers and online as people relived childhood memories of their favorite Hostess goodies.

Customer streamed into the Wonder Hostess Bakery Outlet in a strip mall in Indianapolis Friday afternoon after they heard about the company's demise. Charles Selke, 42, pulled a pack of Zingers raspberry-flavored dessert cakes out of a plastic bag stuffed with treats as he left the store.

"How do these just disappear from your life?" he asked. "That's just not right, man. I'm loyal. I love these things, and I'm diabetic."

After hearing the news on the radio Friday morning, Samantha Caldwell of Chicago took a detour on her way to work to stop at a CVS store for a package of Twinkies to have with her morning tea and got one for her 4-year-old son as well.

"This way he can say, 'I had one of those,'" Caldwell, 41, said.

It's a sober end for a storied name. Hostess, whose roster of brands dates as far back as 1888, hadn't invested heavily in marketing or innovation in recent years as it struggled with debt and management changes.

As larger competitors inundated supermarket shelves with an array of new snacks and variations on popular brands, Hostess cakes seemed caught in a bygone time. The company took small stabs at keeping up with Americans' movement toward healthier foods, such as the introduction of its 100-calorie packs of cupcakes.

But the efforts did little to change its image as a purveyor of empty calories with a seemingly unlimited shelf life: Twinkies, for instance, have 150 calories and 4.5 grams of fat. A Ding Dong chocolate cake with filling has 368 calories and 19.4 grams of fat.

CEO Gregory Rayburn, who was hired as a restructuring expert, said Friday that sales volume was flat to slightly down in recent years. He said the company booked about $2.5 billion in revenue a year, with Twinkies alone generating $68 million so far this year.

Hostess' problems ran far deeper than changing tastes, however. In January, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in less than a decade. Its predecessor company, Interstate Bakeries, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004 and changed its name to Hostess after emerging in 2009.

Hostess, based in Irving, Texas, said it was saddled with costs related to its unionized workforce. The company had been contributing $100 million a year in pension costs for workers; the new contract offer would've slashed that to $25 million a year, in addition to wage cuts and a 17 percent reduction in health benefits.

Management missteps were another problem. Hostess came under fire this spring after it was revealed that nearly a dozen executives received pay hikes of up to 80 percent last year even as the company was struggling. Although some of those executives later agree to reduced salaries, others — including former CEO Brian Driscoll — had left the company by the time the pay hikes came to light.

Then, last week, thousands of members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike after rejecting the company's latest contract offer. The bakers union represents about 30 percent of the company's workforce.

By that time, the company had reached a contract agreement with its largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which this week urged the bakery union to hold a secret ballot on whether to continue striking. Although many bakery workers decided to cross picket lines this week, Hostess said it wasn't enough to keep operations at normal levels.

The company filed a motion to liquidate Friday with U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The shuttering means the loss of about 18,500 jobs. Hostess said employees at its 33 factories were sent home and operations suspended. Its roughly 500 bakery outlet stores will stay open for several days to sell remaining products.

In a statement, the bakery union said Hostess failed because the six management teams over the past eight years weren't able to make it profitable — not because workers didn't make concessions.

"Despite a commitment from the company after the first bankruptcy that the resources derived from the workers' concessions would be plowed back into the company, this never materialized," the union said.

Ken Hall, general secretary-treasurer for the Teamsters, said his union members decided to make concessions after hiring consultants who found the company's financials were in a dire situation. But he said that he believed the company could've survived.

"Frankly it's tragic, particularly at this this time of year with the holidays around the corner," Hall said, noting that his 6,700 members at Hostess were now out of a job.

Kenneth McGregor, a shipper for Hostess in East Windsor, Conn., arrived at the plant Friday morning and said he was told he was laid off immediately.

In a statement on the company website, CEO Rayburn said there would be "severe limits" on the assistance the company could offer workers because of the bankruptcy. The liquidation hearing will go before a bankruptcy judge Monday afternoon; Rayburn said he's confident the judge will approve the motion.

"The strike impacted us in terms of cash flow. The plants were operating well below 50 percent capacity and customers were not getting products," he said. "There's no other alternative."

[solabeirtan]

Unions were the "safety-net" protecting workers rights and benefits since Labor became a force with a voice in the late 1800s. The publicans efforts are more politically based than anything to do with "right to works" agenda. It is to crush the backbone of the Democratic Party. The same as the Prohibition Movement was in its time. It also suppports their causes of lessening the quality of life for the working stiff. They have been actively engaged in reducing union membership since I was born [1952] at which time they enjoyed their largest membership. Unfortunatley for the workers as they would see their wages [relative] and benefits [insurance] diminished greatly along with their membership in the years since. Enabled greatly by the passage of the Taft-Hartley act of 1947.

 

This is where the idea of capitalism and fair treatment of the labor force are at an apex. While capitalism crows about how great a system it is, it denys the fact that all wealth as well as material goods are created by labor, NOT by capital. Money does not make money, labor [people] make the money, all of it. Look at the interest rate on your savings account these days ie: less than 0.1% interest. We are under attack on all fronts here, from increasing property taxes, diminishing property values, increased cost of health insurance, gasoline, rent ...

 

Anybody that doesn't think the efforts today in Lansing, to show their feelings, and VOICE there opinions on the dislike and unfairness of this latest assault on the Peoples Rights to Organize is a huge part of the problem we face. What kind of people are these that use capitalism and greed as a tool to diminish the quality of life for the people that make them rich and give them power?

[t-pain]

unrelated to hostess, livonia's awrey bakery, after 102 years, is closing.

 

i guess the right to work thing wont help awreys.

 

now where am i supposed to get a cheese danish?

[cristinew]

now where am i supposed to get a cheese danish,, walmart or china

[cristinew]

Frankly, right to work isn't an attack on workers. It simply allows one to work somewhere without being forced to join a union. I have family whom hated being forced to pay union dues just to work where they did. In their view the amount they paid the union was so far removed form the benefit received.

 

Well they have the right to go find another job if they hated the union so much,,