Support the Cosmopolitan as much as you can

Perhaps if we could get the Cosmo picketers together in a room for a discussion with the former Hostess workers we could solve all this nonsense.

I did exactly as you so snottily requested. I guess your eyes missed that too. Really ought to get them checked, pearlguy.

That's a good point. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Indianapaddler = Melonhead. While I won't declare that all of the Unions are bad, I am delighted to be in a working environment where they are completely unnecessary. Some of the more idiotic members are amusing when they are being interviewed during a strike.

Just like I do not deny your right to free speech...whilst not agreeing with much of anything you have to say. Labor should be able to Organize and Bargain Collectively but they don't have to have my agreement or sympathy.

That is truly a bunch of crap.

Old/Occasionaly/Here right now.

What's you point? CBG rocks.

Ditto that.

And they will never ever get my sympathy yelling at me when I cross a picket line.

If you don't like the company you work for, move on.

Ray Irani CEO Occidental Petroleum salary $25 Million. Which covers all the above people's salaries with change left over. Plus the Board of directors get $60,000 plus $2000 for every meeting and stock shares worth between $350,000 to $500,000. Wish I could get 60k plus for just sitting my butt in a couple of meetings, let alone 300k of stock.

Umm, . . . too little, too late.


These are the blast furnaces at the Bethlehem Plant today. DonDiego actually worked his way through college at these very furnaces over three Summers, . . . sometimes right there on the tippy-top of the furnaces. Doing manual labor, . . . very manual labor.

To be fair the demise of the United States steel industry over the decades was due to competition from lower cost, . . . in some cases very lower cost, . . . steel plants in Eastern Europe, Asia and even Africa.

Nonetheless, DonDiego did observe the effects of the United Steelworkers (USW) union firsthand.
Many workers did consider "the Steel" to be the enemy of their union. Minor vandalism to Company property was common.
Lots of manufacturing processes could not be modernized because of union opposition. Antiquated work rules led to outrageous and unnecessary expenses; some jobs which could safely be done by one man "required" three men under the old rules, and the union prohibited any change.
After the bankruptcy, many pensions were cut by up to two-thirds, . . . and assumed by the Government.

No matter. It's all gone now.

[n.b. The above comments are not intended to be hateful or "anti-union", . . . just accurate first-hand observations. There is no question that the USW raised costs for Bethlehem Steel. Why, heckfire, poor young DonDiego's laborer wages helped put him through college.]