Proud to Destroy Hostess

Among Tibetan monks, self-immolation might have its supporters but Americans don’t seem to find the idea useful. Unless, figuratively speaking, you are a forced unionism militant. News that Hostess has ceased doing business and eliminated over 18,000 jobs some union bosses should be wondering whether putting these families on the unemployment line was a good thing. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. The Bangor Daily News reports that the union bosses are proud of the destruction of the company.

“I think we’re the first ones who have stood up and said, ‘We’re not going to let you get away with it,’” said Sue Tapley, the strike captain on hand Friday morning at the Biddeford plant, which employed nearly 600 people. “You can fight them. You can shut them down.”

Ms. Tapley is not alone. “Unions have been losing power for years,” said Ken Rumney, a striking worker said. “This is an exceptional case. If Hostess had been allowed to get away with what they’d been trying to do, other corporations would have lined up to try the same tactics. Hopefully, this will be an example to other companies not to [try to] break their unions.”

Incredibly, the paper was able to find a professor who believes that the union did the right thing by destroying the company. “The union’s willingness to go down with the sinking ship — and in some cases take credit for sinking it — in the Hostess case may prove to corporate investors that the working class must be reckoned with, said University of Southern Maine economist and labor relations expert Michael Hillard.