Once Iconic, Often Moronic: It's just NO FUN being a Teamster anymore.

Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it.--Russell Baker

Times change for most, unless you're a union boss...

Those once-bad asses from the American labor movement, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, have become but a pitiful cartoon of their former selves.

Though the shadow of their past reputation for thuggery still earns them respect in the minds of some, the Teamsters leadership is at a comical crossroads of an identity crisis.

Not quite the goons of old, but not quite holding the intellectual superiority of asses either, Teamsters leaders are struggling to find themselves.

In Tuscon, the Arizona Daily Star ran an article this morning about techniques for companies to try to improve employee morale.

The list included things like giving employees a fun break. Examples include bringing in ice cream and hula hoops or a volleyball net.

However, the local Teamsters organizer doesn't seem to want people happy at work...

[F]un isn't why people go to work, and the money could be better used to benefit workers, said Kathy Campbell, a Teamsters organizer in Tucson.

"If you give me a choice between a pizza party and a 25-cents-an-hour wage increase, I'll take the money because I'd rather have pizza with my kids," she said.

As a union organizer, it seems all too obvious why it appears the Teamsters would rather have people be miserable at work. Happy people don't need unions and people like Ms. Campbell need to justify their existences. Without miserable employees Ms. Campbell couldn't justify her $67,445 salary.

(Hell, if you can't beat them into submission like in the old days, you need misery to lure them into your clutches, right?)

Ms. Campbell, it is little wonder you and your ilk need a law like EFCA passed.

You've got nothing to sell anymore except hope to people who are miserable. How pitiful.