Politics: Told ya: Union chief blames capitalism for Hostess demise

Published by: Dan Calabrese on Saturday November 17th, 2012

By DAN CALABRESE - And not just capitalism. Bain Capital.

As expected, there was no way labor unions would just sit back and not come up with a counter-narrative to what happened to Hostess. So here's AFL-CIO president Richard Trumpka coming forth with his take, and it's pretty much what you'd expect - expect apparently the campaign against Mitt Romney continues:

“What’s happening with Hostess Brands is a microcosm of what’s wrong with America, as Bain-style Wall Street vultures make themselves rich by making America poor,” Trumka said in a public statement. “Crony capitalism and consistently poor management drove Hostess into the ground, but its workers are paying the price.”

Hoo-kay! It had nothing to do with the bakers' union refusing the company's last, best offer (in spite ofthe Teamsters' urging them to take the deal), and the company simply recognizing that it didn't have the cash reserves to weather an prolonged work stoppage. It had nothing to do with the union's insistence that a secret buyer was waiting in the wings ready to save the day, which was used to persuade workers to reject management's offer. Oops! The buyer turned out to be as much a figment of the union's imagination as most of its economic theories.

By the way, if Obama was elected to save us from evil capitalists, and after four years of Obama "what's wrong with America" is still "Bain-style Wall Street vultures," then couldn't you make the case that Obama is completely ineffective?

Ah, never mind. I guess we already had that debate, not that this is stopping Trumpka and company from continuing to blame all of America's ills on the now-vanquished and irrlevant Mitt Romney.

Expect more of this. As Obama's anti-growth policies continue to hamper business success and destroy jobs, you will see Obama's defenders increasingly seek to make villians of the businesses who are merely reacting to market conditions. They're already attacking restaurant chains for making adjustments in response to ObamaCare, and now even a company that goes out of business as a result of union obstinacy will be publicly attacked.

I think Obama and crew looked at the election results and concluded that we have indeed become a center-left nation, which is why they feel safe becoming more aggressive in their attacks on the business community. But one thing I know is that, when a union overplays its hand and destroys an iconic American company, there is no way that union or its political allies are going to accept responsibility for their actions. Unions can do no wrong, no matter how much wrong they actually do.