The Hostess-Twinkie who did what to kill it/them thread

[JoeB131]

I am pretty sure asking $4.79 for a box of Ho Hos killed Hostess.

Then again, how else are you going to pay a guy $30 an hour to stock shelves?

Or 2.5 million paid to the CEO to decide what kind of wrapper they put on the HoHo....

 

[Seawytch]

Hostess Continues Pattern Of Misinformation

 

[JoeB131]

Another 6,700 Hostess workers were represented by the Teamsters, a union that was sharply critical of the Bakers' decision to strike. Those jobs largely include truckers, many who both transported and sold Hostess products.

Trucking is a higher paying field, offering a national average of $22 an hour. Including base pay and commission, Hostess Teamsters workers could have earned between $50,000 to $100,000 a year, said O'Brien.

Laid-off Hostess workers face tough job market - Nov. 16, 2012


I know scientists at UC Berkeley that make less than that....

There's a scientist out there making less than 50K? That's a fucking tragedy.

I did notice that 100K was the high end they "could" have made. Was anyone actually making that much.

The point was, the unions had given up a lot in wages and benefits after the 2004 Bankruptcy, and were promised by the owners that they would re-invest in the company. instead, most of the 150 million in savings were paid out in dividends to the hedge funds and salaries and bonuses to the executives..

And not surprisingly, when their competitors grabbed up more of the market share, well, let's just blame those greedy union guys for not taking another 8% pay cut on top of the pay cuts they've already taken, dammit.

 

[JoeB131]

I just can't wrap my head around workers who would rather put their employer and by extension, themselves, out of business, rather than work for less.

Baffling.

When a union does that it's because their leadership knows giving in will be the beginning of an incremental diminution of everything the union had fought for and achieved over the years. It's a matter of dying slowly on their knees or quickly on their feet. With very few exceptions union leaders are neither stupid nor suicidal. They carefully research a corporation's status before engaging in a hostile standoff.

One of the few times the leadership of a significant union took a foolish and unnecessary risk was when the Air Traffic Controllers Union mistakenly believed because Ronald Reagan was once a union president (the Screen Actors' Guild) he would be sympathetic to their very legitimate grievances. That was an understandable misjudgement of a man whose success in life was predicated on deception. He was the archetypal phony and he screwed a lot more than that union.

I consider myself pretty pro-union, but PATCO really had no one to blame but themselves.

Their contract SPECIFICALLY had a no-strike clause, and their strike endangered public safety.

What they thought was that they could intimidate the new guy. They thought wrong.

I do agree with your first point, though, that the union in this case realized that they were in a no win situation, the owners of Hostess would just keep running the company into the ground until they sucked the last dollar out of it like the cream filling in a Twinky.

 

[tyroneweaver]

Another tragedy the right wing is deliriously happy about, the more we find out the more they look like insane sadists.

You might be on to something. All I hear in the news are companies going belly up. It's like all the right wants to do is exploit these tragedies, if not create them, and try to blame them on government and the unions. If you ask me, it's a vast sick right winged conspiracy.

I wonder just how many years of wage gains and basic labor rights we are going to have to go back before the plutocrats are satisfied? They cannot possibly be aiming for parity with China or Mexico but the more I see stuff like this the more it seems likely. How the hell do they expect people to afford their products when 20 years of stagnant wages are just not good enough, now we have to give them back more and massive tax cuts to boot.

you voted for the 21 tax increases...which will be on yourself.

 

[JoeB131]

The unions just voted themselves out of 18,000 jobs. I'm laughing.

Maybe you need to stop by the old folks home and watch some of them fall down due to their infirmaties...

Somewhere at an early age, you didn't learn the difference between horror and comedy.

 

[zeke]

This was nothing more than the vaunted "capitalism" at work.

Product sucks, sales fall, company sold to the wonderful hedge funds, wages cut, promises made, promises not kept, big bonuses paid to top executives, sales suck, unions strike, product still sucks, shut the company down. Hedge funds walk away with big bucks.

Capitalism at work. What is the problem? And it sure wasn't Obama fault that Twinkies suck.

 

[Seawytch]

That's the vibe on the street here in Seattle. The company got new management which sucked the company dry and then chose to liquidate it for the quick money. Fucking over a national institution and a couple thousand jobs in the process.

BCTGM members are well aware that as the company was preparing to file for bankruptcy earlier this year, the then CEO of Hostess was awarded a 300 percent raise (from approximately $750,000 to $2,550,000) and at least nine other top executives of the company received massive pay raises. One such executive received a pay increase from $500,000 to $900,000 and another received one taking his salary from $375,000 to $656,256.

Read more here: Hostess Continues Pattern Of Misinformation - PR Newswire - The Sacramento Bee​

 

[SniperFire]

what? shut up you twit.

Anyways i dont have an opinion on this really. Both camps are blaming the other side and the real losers are the people who will be out of a job. Sadly i see the rest of you are just playing along instead of demanding some sort of compromise and jobs saved before the holidays.

Liquidation is the ultimate 'compromise' for the business owner.

You must mean the business should consider just keeping the doors open and losing money just to be nice guys.

Are you fucking stupid or something sniper? Did i state thats what i wanted to see happen? No, no i fucking didnt. So do me a favor, shut the fuck up and go play your stupid games someplace else. You are play political football with peoples jobs, just like the owner and the unions are doing. Both are wrong, and both are right in certain areas. The loser is the worker who gets laid off, who is working pay check to pay check.

Next time you choose to post, dont bother. I don't need to read your waste of bandwidth. This is why we have abortion rights, so people like you are never created in the first place.

Yes, in fact, you did.

We shall prove it to all.

What was the last year Hostess actually made a profit?

 

[bigrebnc1775]

The unions just voted themselves out of 18,000 jobs. I'm laughing.

Maybe you need to stop by the old folks home and watch some of them fall down due to their infirmaties...

Somewhere at an early age, you didn't learn the difference between horror and comedy.

"You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.
"

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Your support of obama makes you hypocritical using this as a signature.

 

[JoeB131]

"You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.
"

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Your support of obama makes you hypocritical using this as a signature.

Please point out where Obama is hitting you over the head...

because, frankly, you seem to spend your every waking moment whining about him.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

"You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.
"

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Your support of obama makes you hypocritical using this as a signature.

Please point out where Obama is hitting you over the head...

because, frankly, you seem to spend your every waking moment whining about him.

Forced health care tax?

 

[JoeB131]

"You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.
"

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Your support of obama makes you hypocritical using this as a signature.

Please point out where Obama is hitting you over the head...

because, frankly, you seem to spend your every waking moment whining about him.

Forced health care tax?

So let me ask you an honest question here.

Are you really going through life without any kind of health insurance coverage because you are such a rugged indivualist?

Because, frankly, I hear all you folks screaming about the health care tax, and all of you either have private insurance or are on some government program like Medicare.

People screaming about having to get health coverage are like people who are screaming they don't have the right to run down the street naked. It's something they'd never actually do, but they don't like being told they can't do it.

 

[Seawytch]

"You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.
"

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Your support of obama makes you hypocritical using this as a signature.

Please point out where Obama is hitting you over the head...

because, frankly, you seem to spend your every waking moment whining about him.

Forced health care tax?

Reducing the burden on fortunate or responsible individuals that have health insurance. Where is the party of personal responsibility?

 

[Cammmpbell]

[The Teamsters decided that if they didn't get what they wanted from Hostess, they'd kill the company. Grabbing the big bucks was well worth the risk of having no job at all. You can rest assured the likewise morons at GM and Chrysler will think the same way, for after all didn't they rape and sodomize the company they originally worked for until the death rattle was heard night and day throughout its plants, offices, and dealerships until the Union friendly Democrat, Barack Obama, came in and said I'll rape and sodomize the taxpayers instead so you can still keep your jobs in return for your votes. Obama did it once, the Union knows its guaranteed he'll do it again. The sky's the limit on their wages only because they have the taxpayer at their mercy to subsidize them until they reach infinity. GM's new plan for its business success also includes selling a vehicle for $40,000 that costs GM $89,000 to produce. What a plan. The miraculous fruits of affirmative action at work at GM
Richard Trumka says he's going to send his union goons door to door to convince American businessmen to see the light regarding Obamanomics.]

"Back in September, following acceptance by the Teamsters. the bakers’ union (BCTGM) at bankrupt Hostess brands—makers of the iconic Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder brand breads—rejected a company proposal to help keep the company in business. By a voice vote of its members, the union opened the door to conduct a company-killing strike and potentially putting 18,500 Hostess workers onto the streets.

Well, on Friday, the bakers’ union called its members on strike nationwide. Now the job cuts begin.

On Monday, Hostess permanently closed three of its plants, thanks to the union’s strike:

Hostess Brands permanently closed three bakeries Monday, including a plant in St. Louis where 365 jobs were cut, in response to a bakers’ union strike that started Friday.

The bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder bread said it’s trying to avert liquidating the entire company, and it shuttered three plants that were no longer able to produce and deliver products because of picket lines. The other plant closures are in Seattle and Cincinnati, where a combined 262 jobs were cut."

The Demise of Twinkies? Yes, It’s True. Parasitic Unions Kill Their Hosts (or, in this case, Hostess) | RedState

We don't have to worry about Hostess. Some goddam entepreneur like Romulus will come along, screw the employees out of their pensions and a living wage, then open up the "ding dongs" under a new name. Union bustin' is a lot older than I am and I'm 78.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Please point out where Obama is hitting you over the head...

because, frankly, you seem to spend your every waking moment whining about him.

Forced health care tax?

Reducing the burden on fortunate or responsible individuals that have health insurance. Where is the party of personal responsibility?

Do you have any clue about what you just wrote?

 

[JoeB131]

Forced health care tax?

Reducing the burden on fortunate or responsible individuals that have health insurance. Where is the party of personal responsibility?

Do you have any clue about what you just wrote?

I thought what she wrote was pretty clear.

And I noticed you didn't answer my question.

For those of us who work for/pay for our insurance, those who show up at a hospital emergency room for treatment and welch out on their bills make it harder for all of us.

So why are you defending that?

Oh.. because you don't like the government telling people do to things. Mean old Government.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Please point out where Obama is hitting you over the head...

because, frankly, you seem to spend your every waking moment whining about him.

Forced health care tax?

So let me ask you an honest question here.

Are you really going through life without any kind of health insurance coverage because you are such a rugged indivualist?

Because, frankly, I hear all you folks screaming about the health care tax, and all of you either have private insurance or are on some government program like Medicare.

People screaming about having to get health coverage are like people who are screaming they don't have the right to run down the street naked. It's something they'd never actually do, but they don't like being told they can't do it.

I take care of myself I don't allow the doctor to dictate to me nor will I allow the government to dictate to me. I will refuse to pay any tax such as this. That's why I work for cash only. No checks

 

[Bill Angel]

Why did Hostess Bakery go out of business?
Because people are eating less snack foods and more of healthy alternatives like fruit.

Why Hostess Bakery Went out of business​

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Reducing the burden on fortunate or responsible individuals that have health insurance. Where is the party of personal responsibility?

Do you have any clue about what you just wrote?

I thought what she wrote was pretty clear.

And I noticed you didn't answer my question.

For those of us who work for/pay for our insurance, those who show up at a hospital emergency room for treatment and welch out on their bills make it harder for all of us.

So why are you defending that?

Oh.. because you don't like the government telling people do to things. Mean old Government.

Where the personal responsibility when you are depending on someone else for their help? That's why the question was stupid to ask and not answered.