Parasites Killing the Host
Classic examples of parasitism include interactions between vertebrate hosts and diverse animals such as tapeworms, flukes, the Plasmodium species, and fleas. Parasitism is differentiated from the parasitoid relationship by the fact that parasitoids generally kill their hosts.
This wasn’t the Great Society that Lyndon Johnson had in mind, but it is the society that Detroit and New Orleans, among others, have today. And things could get worse. The financial pressures on the city will intensify as the pension squeeze continues and as the unions fight harder to protect their privileges. -Walter Russell Mead 
In San Jose and across the nation, state and local officials are increasingly confronting a vision of startling injustice: Poor and middle-class taxpayers — who often have no retirement savings — are paying higher taxes so public employees can retire in relative comfort. -Michael A. Fletcher
One day, citizens will wake up to learn that their community or state can't fund basic programs and expenses because too much of their budget is tied up with paying pensions for retired public employees. And they'll learn that the blame lies with politicians who traded long-term concerns for short-term political gains from union workers. -Betsy
West Coast Port Union Slowdown
Hapag Lloyd’s apparent departure from the Port of Portland follows South Korean-based Hanjin Shipping, which left the port in early March.
Democrat, Liberal, Union, Government, Incompetence, Financial
The city’s efforts to provide and maintain such basic services as law enforcement and trash removal were further complicated by the costs of paying union contracts and benefits, which have contributed to nearly $15 billion in unfunded liabilities for the city.
Liberal, Union, Financial, Oops, Greed, Jobs
As James Arthur Ward relates in his book, “The Fall of Packard Motor Car Company,” on June 17, 1948, a UAW-led strike, closed Packard’s Detroit plant for half a day. The UAW also organized a walkout at the Bendix brakes plant, cutting off Packard’s supply and forcing it to shut down for an entire week. Later that same year, guards at the UAW-organized Briggs Manufacturing plant also went on strike, once again cutting off Packard’s access to necessary parts, leaving the company no choice but to shutter operations for two entire weeks. And the blows kept coming. The UAW led 8,000 workers on strike in August 1950. The strike lasted two weeks and Packard had no choice but to make concessions — concessions that cost the company an additional $9 million per year, at a time when it could ill-afford such expenditures. In 1956, Packard shut down its plant in Detroit. Packard was gone for good, and the union had unwittingly helped pack its bags.
Liberal, Union, Financial, Funny, Oops, Greed, Justice, Metaphor, Jobs
The company that bought the Twinkie, HoHo and Ding Dong brands out of bankruptcy is gearing up to reopen plants and hire workers, but it won’t be using union labor. Chief Executive C. Dean Metropoulos said the company will pump $60 million in capital investments into the plants between now and September and aims to hire at least 1,500 workers. But they won’t be represented by unions, including the one whose nationwide strike sparked the 86-year-old company’s decision to shut down in November.
Liberal, Union, Character, Degeneracy, AntiAmerican, Protest, Communism
Former Amalgamated Transit Union local 689 president Mike Golash, now an “Occupy” movement organizer, was caught on tape Sunday revealing his political goals: overthrowing capitalism in the United States and instituting a communist government. “Progressive labor is a revolutionary communist organization,” Golash said during an Occupy DC “People’s Assembly” on August 19. “Its objective,” he added, “is to make revolution in the United States, overthrow the capitalist system and build communism.”
Classic examples of parasitism include interactions between vertebrate hosts and diverse animals such as tapeworms, flukes, the Plasmodium species, and fleas. Parasitism is differentiated from the parasitoid relationship by the fact that parasitoids generally kill their hosts.
Liberal, Union, Oops, Economy
New documents obtained by Judicial Watch show acting National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Lafe Solomon joking that the NLRB's suit against Boeing would kill jobs in South Carolina. Commenting on a Planet Labor article whose headline suggests Boeing might not be able to open its new plant in South Carolina because of "antiunion behavior," Solomon writes: The article gave me a new idea. You go to geneva and I get a job with airbus. We screwed up the us economy and now we can tackle europe.
Teamster members at Hostess need to be prepared for the likely outcome of a Hostess liquidation should the strikes continue. We have said it consistently throughout the process that Hostess could not survive any serious labor disruption. That opinion was formed based on extensive financial and legal review by our expert financial and restructuring advisors[sic] (some of the same advisors that worked on President Obama’s Auto Task Force to save GM and Chrysler) over the past 16 months... It’s unclear whether the goal of the Bakers strike is to force Hostess to negotiate or just put Hostess out of business. In interviews Hostess claims BCTGM leaders have not returned calls for many weeks. In addition, Teamster Leaders were not informed by the BCTGM of its actions that began on Friday
Liberal, Incitement, Union, Financial, Fraud, AntiAmerican, Economy, Socialism
Lerner said that unions and community organizations are, for all intents and purposes, dead. The only way to achieve their goals, therefore--the redistribution of wealth and the return of "$17 trillion" stolen from the middle class by Wall Street--is to "destabilize the country."
Lerner's plan is to organize a mass, coordinated "strike" on mortgage, student loan, and local government debt payments--thus bringing the banks to the edge of insolvency and forcing them to renegotiate the terms of the loans. This destabilization and turmoil, Lerner hopes, will also crash the stock market, isolating the banking class and allowing for a transfer of power.
Union, Character, Degeneracy, Economy, Greed, Jobs
IRVING, Texas - Say goodbye to your Twinkies. North Texas-based Hostess Brands, Inc. has decided to go out of business and liquidate its assets after failing to win back striking workers. About one-third of the company's workers are union members who are unhappy about the company's cutbacks during its bankruptcy reorganization. But problems with several unions -- including the Bakery, Confectionery, and Tobacco workers and the Grain Millers International Union -- have prevented the company from moving forward. Hostess said it will seek bankruptcy court permission to sell all of its assets. The company said bakery production has already shut down.
In 2009, as the economy was putting a freeze on municipal budgets even in well-off communities, the police here secured a pay increase of 3.75 percent. And liberal sick time and family-leave policies have created an unusually high absentee rate: every day, nearly 30 percent of the force does not show up.
Union, Character, Degeneracy, Economy, Greed, Jobs
Hostess, the makers of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread, is going out of business after striking workers failed to heed a Thursday deadline to return to work, the company said. “We deeply regret the necessity of today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike,” Hostess CEO Gregory F. Rayburn said in announcing that the firm had filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to shutter its business. “Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.”
Liberal, Union, Character, Greed, Jobs
Twinkie-maker Hostess Brands said Monday that it could go into liquidation if its bakers continue striking in protest against a new contract imposed in bankruptcy court. The company announced Monday that it was closing bakeries in Seattle, St. Louis and Cincinnati in response to the strike, cutting 627 jobs in total. The bakers’ strike, which began last week, continued Monday at around 24 of Hostess’ 36 plants, and Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn said the firm could close more bakeries or even move into liquidation if workers don’t return to their jobs soon.
Crime, Union, Government, Incompetence, Waste, Metaphor, Corruption, Jobs
So in November, Camden, which has already had substantial police layoffs, will begin terminating the remaining 273 officers and give control to a new county force. The move, officials say, will free up millions to hire a larger, nonunionized force of 400 officers to safeguard the city, which is also the nation’s poorest.
Union, Character, Oops, Jobs
A U.S. bankruptcy judge approved Hostess Brands' plan to wind down the company after last-minute mediation fell through Tuesday night between the snack maker and one of its biggest unions. The liquidation comes after the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union called a nationwide strike earlier in the month. Hostess, the maker of Wonder Bread and Twinkies, said in a statement Wednesday after the court hearing that the move by the labor union "crippled its operations at a time when [it] lacked the financial resources to survive a significant labor action." Hostess plans on shuttering 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, approximately 5,500 delivery routes, 570 bakery outlet stores as part of the liquidation process.