Twinkies maker Hostess may liquidate after labor strikes

Welcome to Capitalism Hostess!



Another company will take it's place

I drove by these guys on the picket line in Columbus IN Thursday night.

I wanted to stop the car and get out and tell them "Do you know how hard it is to find a job right now, get back to work, what is the matter with you people?"

There will always be twinkies. Interstate bakeries went out of biz in 2003 in Michigan, we all worried, NO MORE TWINKIES! But , there were twinkies again very soon after.

Probably will be made by nonunion Chinese workers.

Freaking Americans need to start sucking it up, taking less wages, less benefits, less breaks, less of everything. Good riddance to all the unions and anyone that dares to stand up to establishment and the high ranking, highly paid elite CEO's of the country. Don't like it??? Well then STFU and get to work. There's no way you Americans are ever going to compete with the Chinese if you don't stop complaining...

Now get your bowl of rice and get the F*cK outta here...

Yeah well, with the attitude of most people on here we will soon be right on par with our Chinese competition.

I've dreaded this day for a looong time. It's a known fact that the world will descend into hell without Hostess. It's about to get really evil, folks. I have proof:

As for the unions making the company go under, hardly. If it's run be investment professionals, they probably bought it with the main goal of liquidating the company and then selling the trademark twinkie brand.

Just like people who wanted to flip houses, caused the housing bubble, these people flip companies. They want their profit now. They probably ALWAYS planned to sell the company. It just easier for them to sell the machines and trademarks without the people.

There will be twinkies again. So one will buy the trademark and machines. It was just a way to try to break the union.

Actually, I think more workers should have an entitlement attitude towards pay. Yes, workers should make enough to pay, rent, utilities, food and transportation. You CAN NOT raise a family on $10 an hour.


Those values of take "any job and appreciate it" goes back to the time of child labor and millions of people starving.

It's this attitude that's turning the US into a third world country of either super poor or super rich.

reply to post by Daughter2


As for unions, they aren't doing themselves any favors when they have union leaders like Richard Trumka come out in the last couple of days to say that there is no fiscal cliff and it's nothing more than a manufactured crisis.

Originally posted by TKDRL
Good riddance to bad junk food!

BAH! Grinch! Hostess Twinkies and cupcakes and ding-dongs and Devil Dogs and Ho-Hos and Sno-Balls and Drake Coffee Cakes are as Americana as 'The Great American Chocolate Bar' - Hersheys!

reply to post by FlyersFan


The only junk I ever indulge in is aero and coffee crisp bars on easter and christmas That is family tradition though

Originally posted by iwilliam
I think it bears repeating here what another member said in a thread that was closed:


Member aethertek had this to say:

Some creditors question Hostess pay raises approved in late July.

Brian Driscoll, CEO, around $750,000 to $2,550,000
Gary Wandschneider, EVP, $500,000 to $900,000
John Stewart, EVP, $400,000 to $700,000
David Loeser, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256
Kent Magill, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256
Richard Seban, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256
John Akeson, SVP, $300,000 to $480,000
Steven Birgfeld, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000
Martha Ross, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000
Rob Kissick, SVP, $182,000 to $273,008

Maybe if the lazy blankety-blanks who sit on their backsides all day doing nothing didn't take so much the company could make a profit.

But sure blame it on the people making 10 bucks an hour working their butts off.

And I couldn't agree more.
d fire
Thank you for posting the information which I suspected was true. This is absolutely disgusting and proof that these heartless corporate scum-suckers would rather let their company perish, and let THOUSANDS of low-wage workers lose their jobs, than to have to lose their own big bonuses.

Sep 2004 – Interstate bakeries filed bankrupt again
Nov 2009 – Interstate bakeries is rebranded Hostess inc.
Dec 2011 – File Bankrupt with almost $1 billion in assets
Mar 2012 – Old CEO moves on; New CEO to “restructure” @ $1.5 annual salary
May 2012 – Employees are warned of potential mass lay-offs
Jul – 2012 – Deal with Teamsters close to agreement but declined by management
Nov 2012 – Employees strike and company is closed with plans to liquidate

5 months of effort to steal $1 billion dollars and leave America with $1.4 billion in debts that will not be paid.

Of course, this is same red state that is paving the way to secede because Obama is ruining is America. Imagine that.

Originally posted by zroth


Sep 2004 – Interstate bakeries filed bankrupt again
Nov 2009 – Interstate bakeries is rebranded Hostess inc.
Dec 2011 – File Bankrupt with almost $1 billion in assets
Mar 2012 – Old CEO moves on; New CEO to “restructure” @ $1.5 annual salary
May 2012 – Employees are warned of potential mass lay-offs
Jul – 2012 – Deal with Teamsters close to agreement but declined by management
Nov 2012 – Employees strike and company is closed with plans to liquidate

5 months of effort to steal $1 billion dollars and leave America with $1.4 billion in debts that will not be paid.

This is EXACTLY what the rich wanted to happen. Think about it - the CEO still gets his 1.5 million salary, regardless of whether the company went under. The super rich will step in an buy the $1 billion assets at a bargain price. Sure some bank will have bad the debt but the middle class (union) taxpayers will end up bailing the banks out and they eventually get stuck with the debit.

Then to add insult to injury, they get their stupid little followers to say the workers made it happen. They just wanted enough money to live and they used it as an excuse to fleece the taxpayers.

reply to post by Daughter2


And they fell for it.

Humans...

I seen a herd of obese people occupying Twinkie's at my local store!

That the unions have to much power is agreeable by most I am sure but that workers must take pay cuts to keep a job just smacks of paid slavery.

You can't ask people to take a cut in pay when their food bills, heat, lighting, gas, everyday goods have all gone up in price.

Add to that the CEO's who take a massive pay rise but still demand there workers take less and you are even closer to serfdom than anyone would want to be.

Originally posted by Doom and Gloom
reply to post by joyride0187

 

Didn't you know? They don't have to work. Everything that you should ever possibly want shall be given to you by your government. So they can strike and run the company into the ground because the ever generous Federal Government will print more money to give to these folks. Shame on the Hostess company for actually working to make a profit.

That's bullcrap, strikes happen around the world. In south africa our economy has been crippled by strikes this year, and we may feel the brunt of it yet to come... Its not the labourers, the problem lies with the unions, they make billable hours over "disputes", they don't care about labourers, they aim high and if it pops they move on to the next bubble.

Originally posted by Deetermined
reply to post by Daughter2

 

As for unions, they aren't doing themselves any favors when they have union leaders like Richard Trumka come out in the last couple of days to say that there is no fiscal cliff and it's nothing more than a manufactured crisis.

Do a little research. It is a manufactured crisis.

reply to post by Daughter2


Sure I'm not going to argue that $1.5million a year is a lot of money for 1 person, but what CEO would they get for less, how could would that guy have been.

I'm sure the CEO doesn't twiddle his thumbs and play pong all day. So its not like they can get anyone to run a national company.

Its supply and demand.

To those on this thread that used terms "red staters" and other colloquial terms that equate to meaning. evil Republicans in an effort to make this partisan - you owe an apology.

READ THIS!

More importantly, however, as America has been habituated following the last season of the reality TV show known as the presidential election, if Private Equity then "bad." Only this time there is a twist: because it wasn't really PE that was the pure evil in the Obama long-term campaign, it was associating PE with Republicans, and thus: with jobs outsourcing. And here comes the Hostess twist: because Tim Collins of Ripplewood, was a prominent Democrat, a position which allowed him to get involved in the first bankruptcy process in the first place, due to his proximity with the Teamsters' long-term heartthrob Dick Gephardt (whose consulting group just happens to also be an equity owner of Hostess). In other words, the traditional republican-cum-PE scapegoating strategy here will be a tough one to pull off since the narrative collapses when considering that it was a Democrat who rescued the firm, only to see it implode in a trainwreck that has resulted in the liquidation of a legendary brand, and 18,500 layoffs.

Curious cast of characters


Yup good ol Dick Gephardt and Tim Collins both prominent Democrats sold workers and the company down the drain - so look in mirror and point finger.

The tragedy is it was a minority of the 18,000 workers who were out on strike - the actions of something like 1/3 the workforce took out the jobs of the other 2/3 who were not on strike. As I understand it the sticking point was pensioner health benefits for retirees not current base worker pay.

Now the retirees can forget about it, the union is out of luck and the current workers are screwed. Well they all made a point didnt they? not a very practical one and quite devastating to the families involved.

As an aside I worked non-union in several careers in my working life and never had any problem with pay, benefits nor retirement - management and workers had goals that if met helped all out in a proportional fashion commensurate with responsibilty and I can say many times there were cases where I was happy not to have been in management when things did not go as planned because those guys paid dearly for targets not met rather than us workers. When things went well we all were rewarded when not so well we all buckled down together, One year management gave up ALL profit sharing, salary increases and sold shares so that workers could have them - thats how they valued their workforce! You'd never see that in a union shop!

I have always had troble fathoming how any organization can set itself up internally for animosity such as union against management and expect to be successful or make the return for investors that should be made when everybody is basically trying to figure out how to get over on one another other.

The open shop companies I worked for were picked by me, as well as them choosing to hire me and all were classed in top 100 in the country to work for by employee surveys.

I never once felt cheated, done wrong or any of the other scare stories union supporters like to bandy about. I always thought it amusing when during boom times I was working fulltime ALL YEAR and making as much overtime as I could physically take. Union members in my same trade were bench sitting 3-4 months of the year looking for work and then would brag they made more per hour, me knowing I far surpassed them on annual income and most importantly job security.

The bench never attracted me as it seems to attract others. I am and never will be a bench sitter!

so what is the word on the hostess situation? seems to be half the people (republican, white collar non union anti-obama people) are blaming it on the unions, other half blaming it on management (blue collar union people, democrats) what is the consensus? seems no anti-union people are denouncing the managements decision to hand themselves outrageous raises while demanding their slaves take yet another pay cut.

looks like a judge has ordered hostess and the unions to mediation...

hoste ss and management back at drawing board?

Originally posted by iwilliam
I think it bears repeating here what another member said in a thread that was closed:


Member aethertek had this to say:

Some creditors question Hostess pay raises approved in late July.

Brian Driscoll, CEO, around $750,000 to $2,550,000
Gary Wandschneider, EVP, $500,000 to $900,000
John Stewart, EVP, $400,000 to $700,000
David Loeser, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256
Kent Magill, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256
Richard Seban, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256
John Akeson, SVP, $300,000 to $480,000
Steven Birgfeld, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000
Martha Ross, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000
Rob Kissick, SVP, $182,000 to $273,008

Maybe if the lazy blankety-blanks who sit on their backsides all day doing nothing didn't take so much the company could make a profit.

But sure blame it on the people making 10 bucks an hour working their butts off.

And I couldn't agree more.
d fire
Thank you for posting the information which I suspected was true. This is absolutely disgusting and proof that these heartless corporate scum-suckers would rather let their company perish, and let THOUSANDS of low-wage workers lose their jobs, than to have to lose their own big bonuses.

why would a company facing bankruptcy ok these raises while demanding employees take a pay cut? i know, its obama and the unions fault.