Labor Day Special: Sermon on the Factory Floor

[Ralph Wiggum]

This was spoken by a very famous American when he was first starting up what would turn out to be a lucrative business.  A union organizer was trying to create a union at a manufacturing plant that was in its infancy. This well-known American called a plant meeting and said the following:

I understand that all of you fellows want to organize my business here and join a union. Well, that is certainly your privilege. If you'd like to pay a nice portion of your salaries to a union, be my guest. You obviously think that by organizing you're going to make a lot more money, and, in effect, tell me, the boss, what you're going to do.

Before you vote, let me tell you just one thing. I've already started this business over once, and I can and will do so again if necessary. So far, neither I nor my investors have made one damned cent. When we don make some money, I'll see that you make money too. Until that happens, you're not going to make one damn cent more than I can afford to pay you. And if you don't like any of those terms, you can go straight to the pay window and draw you severance pay, because in 30 minutes this plant will be operating full-blast again. Period!

No workers joined the union, and within three years, this manufacturing company was one of the largest in its industry.

Ralphie's reminder of how unions are evil on this glorious Labor Day. Have a great holiday my friends, especially since we conservatives are the ones who actually work in this country.

[freedumb2003b]

h5 deserved and given

[Ralph Wiggum]

Probably posted this anecdote a decade ago at CU, and it always reminds me of why unionization is a such a racket. I've posted here before about how miniscule the unions are in this country, which is less than 8% of the workforce, only inflated because of government unions.

The famous person in question is legendary golfer Ben Hogan. A couple of quick references to the background:

In October 1953, after winning the Masters, the United States Open and the British Open in the same season, Ben Hogan wrote a letter to club pros, seeking their support for his fledgling line of golf clubs.

“These clubs shall be as near perfect as modern day tools and instruments can perform,” he said.

Hogan meant it. He stopped production of the first batch of his clubs in 1954 because they did not meet his standards. It cost his company more than $100,000 and it would be another year before the first sets came out.

Following his most successful season, Hogan started his golf club company in the fall of 1953 in Fort Worth. Production began in the summer of 1954, with clubs targeted toward "the better player." Always a perfectionist, Hogan is said to have ordered the entire first production run of clubs destroyed because they did not meet his exacting standards.

In 1960, he sold the company to American Machine and Foundry (AMF), but stayed on as chairman of the board for several more years. AMF Ben Hogan golf clubs were sold continuously from 1960 to 1985 when AMF was bought by Minstar who sold The Ben Hogan company in 1988 to Cosmo World, who owned the club manufacturer until 1992, when it was sold to another independent investor, Bill Goodwin.

Goodwin moved the company out of Fort Worth, and a union shop, to Virginia so it would be close to his home of operations for other AMF brands and, incidentally, a non-union shop in an effort to return the company to profitability. Goodwin sold to Spalding in 1997, closing the sale in January 1998. Spalding returned manufacturing to Hogan's Fort Worth before eventually including the company's assets in a bankruptcy sale of Spalding's Top Flite division to Callaway in 2004.