Best post in this entire thread.

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States visited on L2 DL650A Adventure since 7-14-12

Nice one Norm. God bless, good will, best for u and yours, you get the picture. In my world , it is God bless!

I've worked both union and non-union. The last non-union job I had, I got fired for making a legitimate safety complaint through the proper channels (safety of the customers, not my safety). I've been both a union worker and a union-represented supervisor. I've never seen anyone fired from the union job who didn't deserve to be fired, and never had a problem firing someone who deserved it. I've promoted union people based on their job performance, not on their longevity, or friends, or gender, or skin color. And, I've seen crooked union officials and crooked corporate officials. I'm enjoying a comfortable union-negotiated retirement (with a lump sum buy-out (union negotiated).


The current owners of Hostess Brands are vulture investors (a.k.a. Distressed debt investors)., including Monarch Alternative Capital, LP, the outfit that bought the Hicks debt in the 2010 financial distress of the Texas Rangers baseball team. If the didn't get their money (according to their figures about $600mil), then they'd force the team into bankruptcy and sale to the highest bidder, not necessarily the best-for-baseball bidder. The other major owner is Silver Point Capital LP, lesser known, but the same bore & stroke as Monarch. The vulture investors are interested in only maximizing the gain to their investors. For example, the Seattle bakery property is worth more as the building site for an office tower than the value of profits from Twinkies and Wonder Bread.


Back to the original posting in this thread. The link was from a Fox source. On November 8, 2012, David Frum, a speech writer for Pres. GWBush, said, "Republicans have been fleeced, exploited, and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex...." This was on Morning Joe, hosted by Republican former Congressman Joe Scarborogh. One would be wise to double check anything from any source, including Faux.

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2007 DL650A Whee! (SV cam transplant)

Manage the unavoidable.
Avoid the unmanageable.

I expected as much... You are welcome!

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2012 DL650A
2010 Triumph Speed Triple 1050
2003 SV1000S (track only)

It is absolutely reprehensible when whistle-blowers are terminated prejudicially - thankfully, current laws are much stronger than before.

The union I belonged to was very explicit about seniority (union membership) in terms of preferences for hiring for other positions, promotions, vacation days, "last one hired, first one fired," etc.

As imperfect as the relationship may be, the employer-employee relationship has been severed by unions. Gone from the union employees toolbox is the opportunity to cultivate that relationship, at their discretion as their needs and wants require; instead, the collective power of bargaining has sledge-hammered any nuances in all things related to employment. The last company I worked for had both union and non-represented employees. Union employees had 23 days per year of paid time off - a bucket to be used for doctor visits, sick days, vacation, etc. As a salaried employee, I had 23 paid time off days as well but if I got sick, I had to mark our computerized HR application as "sick" with no debits to my paid time off. We were "managed" by our supervisors in order to ensure the integrity of the system and minimize abuse. If my boss had a problem or question, we had a chat and we interacted directly; represented people had to have a union rep accompany that meeting and guess how that turns out? Right: contracts-in-force regulate the interaction and circumstances, resulting in a regimented, union-negotiated response. When my company underwent a restructure, thankfully I still had a job, my severance pay (which was policy and not-negotiated by me at the time AND I was "at-will") was "sweeter" than what the union negotiated for the unionized employees.

Unions need to consider how non-represented workers and the general public will look at their purported democratic functions and tactics:

1. Card check - if a company had 1,000 employees and a union wanted to unionize the employees, how illogical is it when only 100 of those employees vote and only 51 vote to be represented, causing the remaining 900 employees to be unionized under such compulsion?
2. The owners or executives or shareholders run the company to make money - so what? Why else would anyone want to assume the risk of starting a business, begging/pleading/prostituting one's self before investors for start-up funds, pay taxes, pay fees, meet every kind of bureaucratic redundancies, and on top of that, play "mother may I" with the union bosses before making any strategic decisions? This is beyond "wag the dog": it is ludicrous that employees who took none of the risks of starting and cultivating that business can tell the owners what to do with their business. Ya wanna run the company? Make yourself useful and work your way to the top. Isn't the CEO of Cinnabon a former Hooters girl?
3. Union-only - if a startup company can do the job at a competitive bid and they have the employees (non-union) who chose to be employed by that company, why can't unions compete in the marketplace if they are supposed to represent the "workers"? Here's the thing: I am salaried and non-represented and you can bet that I work my butt off because I want to get ahead.

I pray for those 18,000 who have lost their jobs but the question needs to be asked - what did they do when they saw the writing (reduced benefits, reduced wages, etc.) on the wall? I liked the company I worked for but when the health benefits kept getting cut and the company-match of the 401k kept diminishing, I was updating my resume. Job security comes from the skills I bring to the company and if I don't like how I'm getting treated or compensated, then it's on me to do something about it. I'll bitch and complain about the middle- and upper-level manager-dunces who keep rotating in and out of the office and "surviving" through the mergers but I'm not going to sit there and wait to have my ticket punched because they don't like my hair or because I ride a motorcycle to work or whatever reason they come up with - and hide (yes, it happens) behind some company-speak about liability or risk. Whether riding or working, a moving target is harder to hit . . .

According to this article there are several guilty parties to blame for 'Death of the Twinkie'.

Who killed the Twinkie? | Loren Steffy | a Chron.com blog

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13 DL650, 03 DR650, 95 DR350

Pick your source of information or statistics from among those that agree with your point of view, then interpret those "facts" to support whatever you want them to say. No wonder Mark Twain referred to "Lies, damned lies, and statistics." (I think it was Mark Twain, anyway, and that's good enough for me.)

Recently Campbell Soup announced it was closing its aging Sacramento canning factory, originally located here because the Central Valley produces most of the tomatoes in the US. Why did Campbell's say they were closing it?...high cost of doing business in CA, they said.

The fact that it was one of their most outdated, inefficient plants and that hardly anybody buys canned tomato soup any more didn't factor in. Nah...

Oh, and they are EXPANDING a plant in Socal. Obviously CA business regulations and taxation are softened down there from constant sunshine, perhaps in the same manner as tar on the road. Who'd a thunk?

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2007 DL650
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" -- Harry M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

PTRider,Thanks so much for posting that inside look. Though it frightens me because I feel I'm in a similar position, at least my thoughts about where my union is headed don't seem so ludicrous anymore. I went from contributing $38/mth to now, suddenly $168/mth... without a raise in over 5 years yet cost of living / inflation has gone up and up and up.

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Wherever you go, there you are.

My source of information (the only correct one, Twinkipedia.com) says this quoteshould be attributed to Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

This thread has prompted some pretty interesting typing, current compny notwithstanding. Not what I expected from a little spongy yellow obloid cake with a creamy surprise.

Remember to never make eye contact when eating a Twinkie.

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Sent from my Hewlett-Packard 75C, using the Flying Merkel motorcycle app.

Stromin'Nroman NC28729, USA

DL650A K7 (Greywolf Moto Lab's R&D test mule) June 1, 2012 - present
DL650A K7 April 23, 2007 - January 6, 2012, RIP

"Look here brother, who you jivin' with that cosmik debris?" Frank Zappa, 1975

Exactly.

And that's why I took last Friday off to go speak with the ANG recruiter about Engineering positions I keep hearing about from a buddy. I'm only 3 years away from being vested but I tell you what, I KNOW my pay is going to keep on the downward trend and I'll need something to help pay the bills & a new way to network into a better job when the time comes.... cause it's-a coming!

As Phil Collins so eloquently put it... "I can feel it coming in the air tonight...oh Lord"


Besides, I tried to join up when I was 17 and my mom refused to sign so now's my chance to serve. Luckily this time I know what the hell I would want to do for a job.

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Wherever you go, there you are.