| Author | Message | ||
     Reepicheep |
I'm seeing the teamsters leader declaring that it was greed that killed Hostess. If that's the case, why doesn't the union buy the company? At this point it should be a killer bargain... good solid products that just don't make a lot of money, which should be no problem if you want to just run it as a non profit and your main goal is to keep the workers employed. Or is it OK for the union to be greedy, but not OK for anyone else to be greedy? Or is the union lying when they say the cuts the union won't accept aren't needed? I'm confused. | ||
| Hybridmomentspass |
unions schmunions youre spot on with your post greedy jerks | ||
| Hammer71 |
Wasnt the Teamsters that caused the demise, a smaller union within the bakers refused the concessions. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
When I heard Hostess was going under, I started Google searching for Twinkie recipes. | ||
| Reepicheep |
My bad, Teamsters worked it out and lobbied hard for the other union to work it out also. It was AFL-CIO that should put up or shut up. Let them buy it and run it, then it's a win / win. From: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83979.ht ml
The implication clearly being that it is Mitt Romney's fault. Bain bought a bunch of bankrupt or near bankrupt entities like this, brought a bunch back to being stable and viable (permanently saving a boatload of jobs) and shut the others down in controlled and organized ways (at least extending a boatload of jobs that were doomed eventually). Surely, if greedy idiots like Romney can do it and get rich doing so, benevolent labor unions can do even better by pouring those obscene profits back into the company and the workers.  | ||
| Sifo |
That's funny stuff Bill! A union actually running a company!  Who would they picket when they can't give the workers what they promise? | ||
| Glitch |
Hostess also reduced its pension obligations and its contribution to the employees' health care plan. In exchange, the company offered concessions, including a 25% equity stake for workers and the inclusion of two union representatives on an eight-member board of directors. http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/16/news/companies/hos tess-closing/index.html 25%! I don't understand, if the union is there to protect people's jobs, why did they decide to kill the jobs? 18,500 jobs. I don't get it. | ||
| Cowboy |
huray for Hostess 18000 more for Obamas gravy train | ||
| D_adams |
Yeah, and how big were the bonuses for the top execs? | ||
| Hughlysses |
I listened to NPR this afternoon. One of the experts they interviewed said the union had gotten bum advice from whoever had coached them on this strike. Apparently they figured Hostess was bluffing about closing down. So much for that theory. | ||
| Glitch |
Yeah, and how big were the bonuses for the top execs? They were in bankruptcy, every payout had to go through the court. Through the court, they had to ask what they could and could not do. The court said it was ok to cut wages, and offer concessions. The union decided they were going to strike. Hostess told the court if they could not produce product or deliver product they'd shut down, the court agreed. The union decided they knew better than the court and Hostess. They didn't. 18,500 people lost their job because the union thought they could bully them. They were wrong. Hostess was doing what they could to stay open, the union did what they could to shut them down. They shut them down alright. | ||
| Aesquire |
If you want to rant about corrupt and idiotic management running a company into the ground... Pick on Kodak. I admit I'm biased here. I worked there in the last days of the "old guard" workers who thought nothing of taking a nap right at the work station, ( and one passed away 20 feet from me and no one noticed until they tried to wake him for lunch... ) but that wasn't tolerated in the new guys... Then the company sold off the profit making parts of the corp, with management taking huge bonuses with each tiny uptick in the stock. Eastman Chemical, the Copier division, then every single part of the company that they could unload. They've been demolishing buildings for years, and all that's left is the management, who are taking bonuses ( requested through the court ) for the anticipated sale of a pile of patents that no one wants, since thy just have to outwait the morons in the boardroom. A buddy of mine was literally the last of the research scientists.... Then he sold cars.... Kodak is leaving behind a very scary toxic waste problem, and I've been saying for years that the last vestige of the company will have no assets to fix that with, and the Management will all be uber rich. So far, I'm right. But they made good stuff. Copiers from Kodak were the best copiers available, with some items you've never even heard of... how about a copier that you can put a dollar bill on in Denver, and print it in D.C. with good enough quality that if you used the right paper... it would pass. Even copied the blue & red threads that a Xerox machine couldn't see. What did they use it for? Satellite photographs of a national security nature.. Kept most of them IN the Mints scattered around the US, with one at the Elmgrove plant, One at NSA HQ and a couple of others in undisclosed locations. Armed guards at all times on the room it was in, because it really could copy money. Heck, we used money to test resolution and quality, since you just go blind looking at ranks of parallel lines all day. When the Treasury slacked off on QC in 1988, I rejected the first several $20 bills handed to me as counterfeit. Sloppy printing, broken lines, and that's what I told the Treasury guy when he insisted they were good.... But I guess, once a QC guy, always a QC guy...Everyone hates you.... Other products wer the definition of state of the art. The Backup mirror for Hubble was made by Kodak. It was perfect. ( and I worked with a fellow who was from the company that made the mirror they launched... that company saved $200 by skipping the basic "straight edge test" for parabolic mirrors, and relying on a computer system for testing. Their mirror tested perfect. On their tester. Not so much in the real world. ) Hostess? I'll miss the Snowballs. If this is really a case of idiot Union leadership.... I hope the Members get to fire him. Good luck with that. | ||
| Psykick_machanik |
Horayyyyy the union won!!! i bet their so proud of themselves, Good job Guys! you really showed them who's boss. Funny, i thought after Hussein Obama won that we all had to get along, to find a common middle ground and stop being polorized. (i guess that doesnt apply to union democrats) | ||
| Buellgrrrl |
I've been involved in the Hostess bankruptcy for several months now. From what I saw this week, I suspect that Hostess execs intended to liquidate all along and just went through the motions of settling with the unions... How else could Hostess have prepared several hundred pages of legal filings overnight? Hostess execs never intended to save the company and have succeeded in killing it so they can pick over the carcass. | ||
| M2nc |
ESOP could work. I personally think this is the only type of business to be in. You have labor relation problems? Look in the mirror and cuss yourself out! Of course the union would find themselves as the odd man out. See I told you its the way to go. | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
Total speculation here and we'll see how it bears out. Tell me if I'm wrong or if I'm right. I haven't followed the Hostess situation at all. Hostess has lately been owned by a holding company. Said holding company has sucked all the profits out of Hostess. Unions complain (I am not a union cheerleader mind you) and strike. Holding company (aka corporate vampire) uses this strike as a convenient excuse to cut and run. Holding company liquidates everything for a few more drops of blood and blames the unions for destroying the company. With all the physical assets of the company liquidated, now the intellectual property (secret sauces etc) get sold/licensed to a south-of-the-border outfit, who will continue making Twinkies at 1/10th the cost, and pay royalties to the holding company on their newly found cash cow. Oblivious consumers consume more twinkies. How'd I do? | ||
| Jima4media |
Simple question here - How many of you regularly eat Twinkies and Wonder Bread? | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
I don't but I'd certainly not turn down a twinkie that was offered. BTW Hostess didn't just make twinkies and wonderbread | ||
| Just_ziptab |
I'm thinking this is only the "berg of the ice tip" in American business operations......  | ||
| Jima4media |
Oh yeah, Hostess makes other delicious and nutritious products such as Sno-Balls, Ho-Hos and Ding Dongs. | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
No, they made lots of other products under different names. Some of them had nutritional value too. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Not just there either, Arkema at Lyon just down the road were planning on investing 70 million euros in their plant which produces chemicals for the photo-voltaic industry, to increase productivity. One of the unions the CGT pulled their members out because the company weren't taking on any new personnel & they decided that their members might have to work harder. All the workers went back to work after 2 weeks because the union were being totally intransigent. Now the company are saying that they can't afford to take such a risk, so the investment funds will go elsewhere. Well f***ing done CGT, workers at the plant were on the local news last night expressing their disgust with the union. | ||
| Rich |
Hostess should have fired them all, and kept going with scabs, or immigrants(legal or not). Why didn't they? | ||
| Pwnzor |
Holy mackerel.... Buellgrrrl????? Out of the great wide open... welcome back!  | ||
| Pwnzor |
Oh. Twinkies suck. Wonder bread sucks. Good riddance. Sucks how the hive-mind unionites killed their own jobs but now they can just reach into my pocket for free healthcare so it's all good. I watched a lady buy 3 cartons of cigarettes and $102 in gas for her Ford Excursion yesterday with her EBT card. | ||
| Hughlysses |
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| 6gears |
The company has been on a downward spiral due to bad financial decisions and mismanagement for years. The company had started bankruptcy filings at the first of the year, long before negotiations with the union. They wanted 30% pay concessions and to stop funding the workers pensions after giving their CEO a 300% pay increase....I would find that hard to swallow, union or not. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
 Twinkie Strawberry Short Cake instead of some crappy "short" cake... use a couple of twinkies | ||
| Reepicheep |
People need to get over the whole idiotic "I have to make X because somebody else makes Y" thing. It just makes them look like a whiny little kid who never worked very hard but then goes around whining when they don't make the football team. Even when it's not true, that's what it looks like. Some people are better at some things than others. Some people are luckier than others. Some people can dance and some people can't. Some people are naturally skinny, or naturally beautiful. You make the most of the strengths you have, make the best deal for yourself that you can, then work as hard as you can to provide the most value possible back to whoever is paying you. That way they get the best return for their investment for you, you get the most experience and responsibility possible, and you are more quickly ready to move to another role (where you can make a better deal for yourself) either where you are at or someplace else. | ||
| Hootowl |
"How many of you regularly eat Twinkies and Wonder Bread?" There it is. |
