What Would It Take to Win You Back?

After a brutally long labour dispute, the National Hockey League (NHL) is trying to win back fans, with freebies. Well, at least the American teams are. Here in Canada, the league’s worst team – yet surprisingly most profitable – the Toronto Maple Leafs, is only giving out free access to today’s practice, and a complimentary bag of popcorn and a cup of hot chocolate.

In the States, many NHL teams are trying to buy back fan loyalty with free tickets, free parking, free hot dogs, jerseys and even half-priced beer.

Despite the free stuff being handed out to weary hockey fans, for once a professional sporting franchise actually may have lost more than most of the regular season, and a bunch of fans.

Unions making unreasonable demands in these uneven economic times have laid to rest big businesses. Just ask the 3,000 Twinkies makers now looking for work, thanks in part to their union’s long battle with Hostess. Hostess has gone out of business.

What good is a union if it puts it’s members out of work?

The National Hockey League Player’s Association, the union representing the millionaire twentysomethings playing a kids game for profit, cost the NHL more money to ratify their latest collective agreement, in an economy where people are more worried about paying their rent, than paying to see a hockey game.

In such an economy, doing anything – anything – which alienates your customers isn’t exactly the brightest idea.

But that’s exactly what the player’s union did, as they battled management, leaving fans out in the cold.

Now the NHL is in an uncomfortable and awkward situation, spending more money to woo back customers, so they can afford the latest demands from the union.

Unions have a respectful history, ensuring protection of worker’s rights when none existed. We’ve come a long way since the Industrial Revolution, and thanks to unions lobbying governments, labour laws prevent most of the atrocities of the past.

These days, unions are more Mofia-like thugs, threatening walkouts, strikes and other nasty business, if they don’t get more money, more job security and other things which aren’t really to protect workers rights, as they are to justify the union dues members pay.

And given the ways unions handle negotiations in such a hostile fashion, one wonders if perhaps union bosses wished they were in the mob?

What if comes down to is money.

Unions cost their members money, not just in dues taken right off the top of their hard earned pay, but also in the wages. When they force their members to walkout, strike, work-to-rule and other mob-like tactics, their members only get partial salaries, commonly called “strike pay.”

And unions threaten the viability of a business, by cutting off the goods sold to the customer – be it Twinkies, or hockey tickets and a plastic cup of beer.

Unionized labour’s time has come and gone.