Look For The Union Label - Twinkies Or Devil Dogs

Both actually.  Made by the now kaput Hostess brands.

How many times when you read about mass lay offs or company closures do you find union contracts a part of the problem?  I don't know why the rank and file, nor union leaders especially, don't understand in these days of economic woes there is a limit to money available to appease them.

I especially don't understand why one union would refuse concessions while their brother unions have agreed to them resulting in the loss of jobs for everyone.

If it's just plain selfishness it backfired.  Hostess closed it's doors.  Should someone buy them and assume their debt you can bet the union employees who brought them down won't be rehired by the new owners.  So where will they go? How many jobs for bakers are begging to be filled?

So what's to be done?  A petition has gone up on the White House web site calling for the nationalization of the company.  Is this a joke?  Who knows.  So far there are over 2000 signatures.  Twinkie lovers unite!  Right. Michelle Obama would never allow the government to nationalize a junk food company! Or even give them a Solyndra type infusion of cash.  How hypocritical would that be?

In all seriousness, I can't help but wonder about the thought process of union bosses.  For instance, union rules require two different trucks to deliver bread products and cake products to the same retail outlet.  That requires two drivers, double the fuel and two vehicles.  Drivers couldn't load their own vehicles either.  Separate crews loaded the bread on one truck and the cakes on the other. So two crews rather than one.  It's ridiculous and costly.

'Make work' rules like these are why many companies have moved their operations off shore. It's more cost effective, period.   Rich benefits and high salaries only add to the financial burden.  You can get into greedy corporate leaders and greedy venture capital firms if you want to and in some cases it's justified.  I'd just like to see along with the criticisms of management, a fair assessment of union contribution to the financial strain.

In the case of Twinkies, Hostess, the blame game is playing out as it has so many times before.  The company could not recover from outlandish financial demands.  Twinkies, Devil Dogs, Ho Hos and Wonder Bread are gone.  So are 18,500 jobs that didn't have to be.





  

Being Relevant

Our country in in flux.  Morals, character, integrity such as I knew them growing up now seem to be ignored with abandon.  We're in attack and blame mode yet there is no satisfying end.

I'm in the same mode.  I told a reader today to, literally, take a hike.  I was tired of what I perceived as  being put down.  Thin skinned?  Maybe, but there are ways to disagree without being patronizing and like with so many things today I just got tired of the tone. Will I regret it? At the moment I have no idea.  It's not the way to encourage readers, that's for sure.  But suffice it to say this has been going on for a good while.  It has always been civil which has always been my criteria, I'm just tired of the contentiousness.

Flux?  I'm in that mode too.  In one post I'm encouraging our citizens to look for younger leadership yet quick to find fault with those chosen.  I expect too much I guess.  I expect more common sense and less sense of self than many seem to have.

Still, I think there comes a time when we who have lived and experienced much should perhaps spend our energies mentoring rather than being activists.  Not that we need to be couch potatoes, but don't need to run marathons to prove our worth either.  We have much to offer, we just need listeners.

So how does this work?  Imagine this.  A college football team from a school nicknamed 'Silo Tech'.  It reminds me of my college days at 'Moo U'.  They have one set of uniforms for away games and one for home games.  Not multiples of each. "No earrings or hats in the football complex, no dreadlocks hanging out of helmets ", no missing classes or team meetings.  Players, some good, some not so, came to the program none-the-less and they're winning.  The players have risen to excellence in their positions and function as a team rather than an amalgam of super stars. It is possible they will reach the BCS championship against Oregon, a team that is their antithesis.

What I hope these young man take away from their football experience is that team work is more important than showboating. Education is important and attending classes is how to get one.  Commitments are to be kept and team meetings are commitments. Substance is more important than dazzle.

Just who is responsible for this phenomenon in the world of college football, of all venues? The coach of course.  One Bill Snyder.  73-year old Bill Synder.  This is being relevant!

Republicans And The Vision Thing

Ah, the blame game among Republicans is alive and well.  Some are actually getting the reasons for their loss right.  It makes me wonder why they didn't see it before the election.  A lot of us did!

Romney has come up with a reason Bobby Jindal totally rejects.  Romney, displaying a classic case of tunnel vision, says it's because of the 'gifts' promised to special groups - everything from cell phones to interest on student loan forgiveness.  He is right.  Throwing those bones to certain groups did  buy votes. It is, however, not even close to the whole reason.

That's what Jindal is telling us.  He thinks the terminology is divisive.  Well, so was the action.  He goes on to point out, however, it as far more the writing off of the 'takers' rather than trying to embrace them  and present them with a path to escape having to 'take'. That would be a real vision and was totally missing from both the Republican and Democratic campaigns.

There are takers, real ones.  They make up no majority other than getting the bulk of slanted news coverage.  America did not get to be the most powerful nation in the world on the back of takers.  Doers.  Now that's a different story.

It's not the doers fault he lost.  They're too busy trying to keep it together.  Trying not to lose their jobs or businesses or homes.  Trying to put food on their tables and gas in their cars.  And a lot of them didn't vote.  They're tired of voting against a candidate rather than for one.

Those who did vote were the Democratic base under the direction of a superb 'get out the vote' strategy.  The Republicans left it to chance and failed.

I hope Jindal is representative of a new breed of Republican who realizes connecting with the people is important.  Articulating the problems and solutions to them is important. And in line with what Romney has said, rather than 'gifting' those with explicit needs, embrace them, listen to them and work with them to fulfill those needs. Not pitting one group against another.

I'm no longer an Obama fan.  I think he's obstinate and short sighted. He had no vision nor accomplishments on which to run, which is why he ran the dirty campaign he did. The irony of it is it wasn't really necessary.

Romney too was obstinate and short sighted.  The Republicans were arrogant and divisive and often condescending.  We talk a lot about the need for compromise in Congress.  The Republicans could use a bit within their own party.

In order to win they are actually going to have to find common ground with the Democrats when it comes to issues.  Their job then will be to convince the voters their solutions are better and more encompassing than the Democrats.  What's so hard about that?

The Democrats face the same problem not far down the road.  They too could use new leadership. In four years Hillary will be 69.  Biden, who also wants to run, along with Reid and Pelosi will be into their 70s.

Compare them with the up and coming Republicans.  They're a younger lot and capable of being nearly as 'cool' as Obama. Certainly as politically capable and in many case far more so. Hopefully their ideas and abilities will be as fresh as their faces.

One Step At A Time

Where there's life there's hope.  I hope.  Amid all the ugliness going on in the administration, Congress has it's own share.  First, Nancy Pelosi has decided not to retire.  Second, Harry Reid has declared he will not bring Social Security to the table. Swell.

Nothing new here.  I don't know about you, but I don't think the Democrats received any sort of mandate, especially for obstinance.

Perhaps, however, there is a faint light flickering at the end of the tunnel.  One lonely Democrat has said he will oppose Nancy Pelosi's bid to remain  minority leader.  He tried before and failed when he backed Heath Shuler who did not seek re-election this cycle.

But he's trying again.  Even though he expects to lose again, at least he is making a statement that all Democrats should heed.  He told The Salt Lake Tribune  that Pelosi contributed to the polarization by squeezing out moderates and that the Democrats need leadership that will work in a more constructive way.  Wow! Three cheers for Mr. Matheson! He is a brave man because it means he will be a target of Ms. Pelosi.

He won, narrowly, an interesting campaign against Mia Love.  Black. Female. Mormon. Republican.

I liked what I saw of her and had high hopes she would win.  She was the victim of some pretty nasty threats but I think not from the Matheson camp. He was a six term incumbent and she was - well, who she was.

I hope she will re-emerge somewhere along the way.  She's an inspirational story.  But for now Mr. Matheson holds the seat and has the courage to do what is right.  Oppose an obstructive leadership.  If only someone would do the same in the Senate!

Of course, if the Republicans had gotten their at act together, it would probably not have  been an issue in the first place. But it was and is. It's nice to see that a Democrat here and there also realize their party needs a push in a more productive direction. That it's not just the Republicans fault nothing gets done. One step at a time may be agonizingly slow, but it's a start.

Veterans And Their Families Who Also Serve

Veterans.  Many are old, having fought and survived wars long over.  Too many more are young.  They come home damaged, missing one or more body parts, blinded, burned, emotionally scarred.  They'd not have survived in wars past because the medical technology was not yet available. But now it is and home they come.

Forget the jobs that aren't here or the services we owe them that are so lacking.  They come home to families, wives and children.  What about those wives?  Their good bye embraces were with whole, physically and mentally sound young men.  Their welcome home embraces are to often broken bodies and minds.  Yet they are there.  Waiting with open arms and strong shoulders and fragile emotions.

It's a sad statistic that the divorce rate  for Iraq and Afghan vets is up some 42%.  I'd wager it isn't for the lack of trying to make those marriages work. The wives have been home bearing the responsibility of raising the family, managing a household and maintaining some semblance of normalcy while the husbands are 1000s of mile away in a strange lands fighting for a sometimes questionable reason.  How can anyone, no matter the training, be prepared for what they must do and what they witness happening not only to themselves but their comrades?  How could they not come back scarred? It's the price of surviving a war.  Everyone is scarred. The families as well as the soldiers.

Yes, those families  have their own battles to fight.  The wrenching fear of what might happen then the question of how they will cope when the worst does happen.  It takes a courage unto itself.  I salute them.  It takes a huge amount of love and devotion to focus on the man inside the wounded bodies.  They do though, you can see it in a touch or a look or even a moment of reflection.  It played out dozens of times as their stories were told time and again this Veterans Day weekend.

I'd like to think their sacrifices have been made for a grateful country.  They have if it's those of us who sit here free and safe and warm because of them.  I cannot help but wonder, however, about the contempt of the government when records are lost, diagnoses nit picked and basic needs denied.

I cannot help but wonder when it is rumored that the next Secretary of Defense is likely to be a man who has nothing but contempt for the military.  Senator John Kerry.

If it comes to pass it should be proof positive as to whether or not the this administration has the backs of those serving overseas, be it military or civilian posts. Benghazi raised the question.   John Kerry as Secretary of Defense would answer it.

Our military and their families who face not only the horror of war in real time but also the horror that can be the aftermath, deserve better.  Don't we all?