1963 started out as such an amazing year. My world was so simple. The drug epidemic, the sexual revolution, the Woodstock generation, and Viet Nam were only future issues. John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, and Elvis were all still alive.
I was in my second year at NYU Dental School, newly married and so proud of our tiny 15th Street apartment. Armed with a new college degree, my wife Judy anxiously started her first teaching job on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Sure there were the gangs. Poverty, broken families and crime were commonplace. PS 71 had their share of incompetent teachers. Some where protected by some archaic tenure system. Some were there just to avoid the Viet Nam draft. Several were just incompetent. But most, like Judy, brought their enthusiasm and expertise into that vibrant, pulsating, Puerto Rican neighborhood .
I watched as these young students made real academic progress. No one “blamed” the ancient building. No one mentioned the lack of supplies or class size. Not once did anyone use as an excuse the broken family structure or their lack of language skills. As in my own immigrant family, so many of these poverty stricken families, they just wanted success for their next generation.
I never will forget being the “class father” on those chaotic student-trips. . For many of these wonderful 3rd graders, it was their first time north of 14th Street. What an experience it was for me, to accompany Judy on those infamous, after-school visits to the troublemakers “walk-up” tenement apartments.
However, what I remember most of all was Judy coming home one day with some startling news. I was actually asked to join the newly-formed teachers union.” Imagine that. So unprofessional . We’re not teamsters. But, guess what? After much arm-twisting, threats and debate, a vote was taken and it actually passed. The teachers on Avenue B and 12th Street were unionized. Why? Guess what the starting salary was that year? As a newly licensed teacher, Judy was earning the amazing salary of only $4,700 dollars a year.
Today, almost 50 years later, some unions seemed to have violated their founding ideals, and have actually become detrimental to the very members they profess to represent.
Hostess Brands, that iconic 82 year-old bakery, maker of such favorite Michael Bloomberg treats as Devil Dogs, Wonder Bread, and Twinkies, with its 18,500 workers, 36 plants, and 30 brands, will totally disband rather than allow the 5,000 bakers union workers to strike and reject the latest court-imposed contract. This same contract, by the way, was accepted by the teamsters union representing the remaining 14,000 workers.
Let’s examine the issues and see if you agree with me, that in today’s economy, it is ludicrous for the union to give up the jobs of almost 20,000 workers rather that agree to these modest concessions?
1- “Hostess” presently has 1.4 billion dollars in liabilities.
2- The company presently has 80 different health and benefit plans.
3- $31 million dollars are due this year in increased wages alone.
4- In 2011, $2 million dollars of workers comp claims are due.
5- The company has previously filed twice for bankruptcy protection.
6- The 17,500 newly unemployed workers would be 11% of ALL the net new jobs in the entire U.S. economy in October.
7- The rejected plan only called for an immediate, across the board 8-percent salary cut.
8- It also called for an 17% percent increase in members healthcare payments and
9- It also proposed was a new pension format.
Yes, that’s it. Shame on you, union officials, saving your own jobs while destroying their members livelihood.
And to make matters worse. as reported in the WSJ, if cake and bread products are delivered to the same Hostess location:
1- Two separate trucks must be used (one for cake and another for the bread).
2- Two separate crews must be used to unload the trucks! and
3- Another two new crews must be used to stock the shelves.
Dr. Stephen Morris
North Hills
