Here's a statement issued by BCTGM officials--take a guess at what "accomplishment" the union is bragging about here:
This decision vindicates the struggles and sacrifices of our members at Stella D’oro. The private equity predators at Brynwood Partners thought they could refuse to bargain with us, deny us information, break the law, tear up our contract, force a strike and break the union. But our members’ solidarity has held with the help of the community and our many supporters around the country and world.
Surely, they can't be referring to the decision to shut down Stella D'oro that Brynwood Partners logically made when it couldn't wrest concessions from the union to stay afloat. Instead, they are probably referring to a decision by a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) judge that forced Stella D'oro to take back the union workers who had been on strike, but which then led to the announcement that the Bronx plant would be shut down in October.
Bye, bye, unionized workers. This is what your solidarity got you.
I remember when I worked for a teachers' union, we vigorously supported a disastrous strike by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union against Southern California supermarkets. The strike dragged on for months as union members either lost everything or were forced to take new jobs in a different field. When the union finally "settled" with the supermarkets, it was for terms much worse than offered by the contract they initially rejected and went on strike to protest.
The next day the UFCW proclaimed a "great victory" for its members.
Unions everywhere do the same thing--blow official smoke and require their members to drink the Kool-Aid of solidarity, which often ends in disastrous results.
