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My father retired from the Operating Engineers union.
Seniority will mean nothing
A republican, a union member, and a CEO are all sitting at a table with a dozen Twinkies.
The CEO immediately takes 11 Twinkies for himself.
The CEO then turns to the Republican and says."Watch out for that Union guy - he wants part of your Twinkie."
Originally posted by Tazkven
reply to post by hounddoghowlie
Union bashing, great ...
You kids drink up on that Kool-Aid those corporations are feeding you.
I have said it over and over either you're NOT a blue collar worker or your worried about you're million dollar bonus.
Union's are being destroyed, they ARE losing the battle ... so that should make you happy.
But in other threads you guys will be talking about the middle class dying, the wage equality gap, bad economy, record corporate profits, record CEO pay and bonuses, falling American workers wages, benefits, money circulation to stimulate the economy etc. and never put it together trying to figure it out ... what happened exactly.
And it is not about telling a person what they can do with their money, political parties, taxes or the economy. It's about greed brother, greed at work. Heard a good one today as a matter of fact ...
A republican, a union member, and a CEO are all sitting at a table with a dozen Twinkies.
The CEO immediately takes 11 Twinkies for himself.
The CEO then turns to the Republican and says."Watch out for that Union guy - he wants part of your Twinkie."
Right there is the problem in a nutshell ...
Originally posted by hounddoghowlie
when the unions make them load twinkes in one truck and their bread in another, just so they can get more union drivers to work . what do you call that.
Workers believed management, and kept on working.
But, it turned out, as we learned from that interview in today's Wall Street Journal, that the senior management wasn't just "borrowing" the pension funds - they were using them to fund ongoing operations. Including big paychecks to the fatcats.
Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn wanted to make it clear that he wasn't around when that particular thing happened. "Whatever the circumstances were, whatever those decisions were, I wasn't there," Rayburn told the Wall Street Journal. After all, Rayburn isn't a baker - he's a bankster. He's the owner of Kobi Partners, a company that tells corporations how to "restructure." Think Mitt Romney. And he's going to make out very well on all this - the bankruptcy court just okayed $1.8 million in Christmas bonuses for the new fatcats at Hostess.
The Teamsters union is urging the bakers union to hold a secret ballot on whether to continue striking. Citing its financial experts who had access to the company's books, the Teamsters say that Hostess' warning of liquidation is "not an empty threat or a negotiating tactic" but a certain outcome if workers keep striking.
The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union said the company stopped contributing to workers' pensions last year, and the union wants pension benefits restored.
Wedrick Hollingsworth, business agent for Local 372-B of the bakers union, said union members took wage and benefit concessions four years ago and are unwilling to accept further wage cuts and reductions in health and pension benefits sought by the company. "It's just too much for these employees to accept. We gave concessions four years ago
While Hostess has said the shutdown would result in the loss of more than 18,000 jobs and place the fate of more than 30 American brands in jeopardy, union President Frank Hurt said he believed there was "more than a good chance" that a buyer quickly would swoop in to buy the profitable parts of the company and give his union's members their jobs back. "I'm not in a position to promise anybody anything, but I'm in a position to be hopeful," he said Sunday.
Liquidation firm Great American Group Inc. GAMR -13.04% and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co., the owner of beer brands including Pabst Blue Ribbon, have signaled interest in Hostess's brands. But Mr. Rayburn said potential buyers have made clear that their interest partly is because a liquidated Hostess would be free of its collective-bargaining agreements.
"People are excited about the brands today, but I don't know how you connect the dots" to get to a full rebirth of the company, he said, especially one that incorporates the union members who had struck. "That's beyond wishful thinking. That, to me, is just misguided." Mr. Rayburn said he expected a buyer might pick a few of Hostess's
Private equity firm Sun Capital Partners wants to buy bankrupt bakery Hostess Brands Inc., Fortune has learned. The proposal would be to operate Hostess as a going concern, including reopening the shuttered factories and continuing union representation of Hostess workers.
"I think that we could offer a slightly better, more labor-friendly deal than what was on the table last week," says Sun co-CEO Marc Leder,
Source
Leder also thinks that Hostess would be a relatively easy company to restart, particularly given that most of its vendors still have empty shelves where Hostess products used to reside.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal , Hostess’ CEO, Gregory Rayburn, essentially admitted that his company stole employee pension money and put it toward CEO and senior executive pay (aka “operations”). While this isn't technically illegal, it's another sleazy theft by Hostess executives - who've paid themselves handsomely while running their company into the ground. Just last month, a judge agreed to let Hostess executives suck another $1.8 million out of the bankrupt company to pay bonuses to CEOs
Hummel notes that the “oops” letter became the justification for asking the workers to take a pay cut, which they agreed to, and his pay dropped from $48,000 a year in 2005 to $38,000 a year last year. But every year, $3 an hour of his compensation showed up in the worker’s pension fund instead of his paycheck. Year after year. With 18,000-plus workers, it was millions and millions of dollars. Dollars that the workers had paid in, at the rate of $3 per hour.
Then came the Bain-style takedown. In order to strip the company down to its individual brands and sell them off, piece by piece, the company needed to bust the union. The union said, “No,” so the company went to bankruptcy court – a method Bain and other vulture capitalists often use to kill off unions
In the meantime, the CEO and senior executives were paying themselves handsome salaries and big bonuses. And where was that money coming from?
Ironically, if you borrow money to pay for your education, you can’t get rid of that debt through bankruptcy – one of the “reforms” of the bankruptcy law during the Bush era. But if you’re a CEO or a buyout bankster and you borrow money from your employees’ trust fund to be able to cover your own paycheck and million-dollar bonuses, and then take your company into bankruptcy, neither you nor the company have to pay those employees back even a single penny. Part of their pension is picked up by federally-run pension insurance, and the rest is just lost.
Imagine it, a law that says you don't have to join the 'club' to work at a job.... Just because the 'club' says you have to.
Isn't this in itself hypocritical if you yourself believe in the freemarket? If private businesses wish to associate with private Unions, what right do you have to intervene?