Friday, June 5, 2009

On Unions: Short, Sweet and to the Point

Apparently I will be buying my next round of grillable meats from Whole Foods for a reason other than that they carry good meats. Whole Foods Chairman John Mackey could very well be a new hero of mine after this statement on the radio yesterday:
The union is like having herpes. It doesn't kill you, but it's unpleasant, and it stops a lot of people from becoming your lover.

Here is a guy who has successfully built multiple Whole Foods locations in a city (Chicago) where the unions are blocking Walmart from entering economically depressed neighborhoods that the store would benefit in every way possible, simply because the chain is not unionized. I hope he can keep it up, and eventually help pave the way to bettering the city I live in and love.

2 comments:

  1. I exchanged letters with John long time ago - mid-1990s. They opened a store in Palo Alto, CA. No union. He was being picketed. Was ugly. John was at HQ in Texas, of course. I wrote and told him to stand strong - that local sentiment was not the vocal minority, and that, as a general proposition, unions sucked. He wrote back a personal letter - not some standard form. Full page.

    This union position of his is long standing. Seems like a good man.

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  2. That is very cool. Those are the kinds of stories you only ever hear about people in the private sector. That someone who had to have been as busy as he was at then would take what had to be personal time to write that letter back to you, would rarely, if ever happen in the world of politics or government.

    My respect level for him has taken another step up already.

    Fantastic!

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