Union response to Hostess Closure

[Anonymous]

I always wondered what the purpose of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union was! I pass that place in Kensington all the time!

Little did I know it was the evil headquarters of the plot to take down the Twinkie. Oh, my beloved Twinkie. Tear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Management sucked and the product outlived any appeal. The union may not be blameless, but management shouldn't get a free pass here.

I have twinkies and ho-hos oncea year and they have not outlived their usefulness. I also loooooove the little, powered sugar donuts.

[Anonymous]

The faster the economy collapses the more Obama squirms. What a collection of fools.

[Anonymous]

Well, we all know the teacher's unions have done wonders to make our education system the best in the world.

Kidding aside, hoooray for the teachers of the country, but the NEA and other education unions have not seen the ball since the kickoff.

[Anonymous]

LOL give a bunch of minimum wagers pensions, what did you expect?

http://moneymorning.com/2012/11/16/hostess-brands-shutdown-highlights-looming-pension-crisis/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OMG if there was ever a failure of management, this is one. They had SIX CEO's in the last eight years. The unions have been PLEADING to modernize their operations and management did not care, because the goal of the private equity is to liquidate the business. On top of that the company was not paying its pension contributions as of around 2011. The union has been negotiating ever since, only striking this month.

Was the union out of line? 92% of the membership voted to strike. That's about as close to unanimous as I have ever seen out of 20,000+ people.

As for the ownership, they were idiots for not taking the Grupo Bimbo offer in 2004. Sucks for them but they had it coming.

If there was ever an example of failed executive leadership, this is it.

Bet they all walked out with a huge check!

Actually yes. And they gave management executives an 80% pay increase. Then the union howled so they took some of it back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The faster the economy collapses the more Obama squirms. What a collection of fools.

Actually the collection of fools is the private equity firms that screwed the pooch. Little Romneys blew it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The faster the economy collapses the more Obama squirms. What a collection of fools.

Why do you hate America and all that it stands for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a company like Hostess cannot make it in the fattest nation on Earth, then I think their management is doing something wrong. Just sayin.

PS-- TastyKakes are better, anyway.

High five!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL give a bunch of minimum wagers pensions, what did you expect?

http://moneymorning.com/2012/11/16/hostess-brands-shutdown-highlights-looming-pension-crisis/

Is there a specific wage level that is "deserving" of a retirement plan? But then we know you already liquidated your 401k in a fit of financial lunacy ROTFL after Obama won the election.

[Anonymous]

Pre-union America was roughly equivalent to the Third World today. Before unions America looked like a bad scene from The Hunger Games and once they are dismantled it will again.

Gov. Romney was personally responsible for sending decent paying industrial jobs overseas to exploit unprotected non-union labor forces. He thinks that 47% of the population are good-for nothing and he didn't care if they voted for him or not. He wanted 50% +1 vote and that's who he intended to serve had he become President. It was not only the words he used when described 47% of our people as useless takers, it was also the tone of his voice. He spoke those words with a tone of deep-seeded contempt for that 47%.

Sure there are problems and waste created by unions, because they are run by people and to some extent such things are part of our nature. You can point to virtually any human endeavor and you find some degree of waste. Union do create some degree of waste, but that waste is microscopic in relation to corporate greed.

The unions didn't cause the Great Depression; they hardly existed in 1929. The unions didn't cause the Savings and Loan Crisis or the National Banks Crisis both separate events occurring first in the middle then again in the late 80's.

The unions didn't cause the dot.com bubble in 2002 and finally the unions didn't create our most recent banking crisis in 2008, which shut down Lehman Brothers and send the national unemployment rate above 10%.

If you want to be taken seriously when you talk about waste and capital destruction, you need to begin your dialog the question of how do we control corporate greed.

The bakers union at Hostess were not asking for any additional wages at all. The contract they turned down was a refusal to take a 7% cut in wages. This harks back to the days when Carnegie and Fisk shut down their steel mill in Homestead, PA for the sole purpose of locking out the union.

This nothing more than the Homestead Lockout all over again. Hostess has offered its bakers a contract that the management team knew in advance the union would reject which has now given them the freedom to sell the company free from any of its former labor contract obligations.

Americans stop blaming the working people next to you. Remember the past, stop watching Fox News, and pray that your grandchildren will not one day be selected as contestants in the Hunger Games.

[Anonymous]

The bakers are acting rationally. Liquidation actually benefits them because their pension is an MEPP and because Bimbo will probably buy a lot of the bakeries.

[Anonymous]

Trashing unions... amazing.

Of course it isn't the fault of hedge funds or the private equity firms that raided the company, loaded it with debt, put in horrible senior management that is getting outrageous salaries yet driving the company into the ground.

The worst part: the unions will walk away with nothing but the hedge funds and the equity firms that drove this company into bankruptcy - twice - will still walk away with MILLIONs in profit.

Here is a great story from Fortune: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/07/26/hostess-twinkies-bankrupt/.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pre-union America was roughly equivalent to the Third World today. Before unions America looked like a bad scene from The Hunger Games and once they are dismantled it will again.

Gov. Romney was personally responsible for sending decent paying industrial jobs overseas to exploit unprotected non-union labor forces. He thinks that 47% of the population are good-for nothing and he didn't care if they voted for him or not. He wanted 50% +1 vote and that's who he intended to serve had he become President. It was not only the words he used when described 47% of our people as useless takers, it was also the tone of his voice. He spoke those words with a tone of deep-seeded contempt for that 47%.

Sure there are problems and waste created by unions, because they are run by people and to some extent such things are part of our nature. You can point to virtually any human endeavor and you find some degree of waste. Union do create some degree of waste, but that waste is microscopic in relation to corporate greed.

The unions didn't cause the Great Depression; they hardly existed in 1929. The unions didn't cause the Savings and Loan Crisis or the National Banks Crisis both separate events occurring first in the middle then again in the late 80's.

The unions didn't cause the dot.com bubble in 2002 and finally the unions didn't create our most recent banking crisis in 2008, which shut down Lehman Brothers and send the national unemployment rate above 10%.

If you want to be taken seriously when you talk about waste and capital destruction, you need to begin your dialog the question of how do we control corporate greed.

The bakers union at Hostess were not asking for any additional wages at all. The contract they turned down was a refusal to take a 7% cut in wages. This harks back to the days when Carnegie and Fisk shut down their steel mill in Homestead, PA for the sole purpose of locking out the union.

This nothing more than the Homestead Lockout all over again. Hostess has offered its bakers a contract that the management team knew in advance the union would reject which has now given them the freedom to sell the company free from any of its former labor contract obligations.

Americans stop blaming the working people next to you. Remember the past, stop watching Fox News, and pray that your grandchildren will not one day be selected as contestants in the Hunger Games.

You are feeling extra dramatic tonight.
I hope this makes a dent toward the elimination of organized labor.
The unions have outlived their usefulness.

[Anonymous]

This isn't even a union thing. When 92% of workers turn down a deal, knowing they will get fired, that tells you the problem is not the union.