What's up with Hostess????

[EddieS'04]

I heard on the news. That as Hostess winds down into bankruptcy, and sale of the company.

Bankruptcy court has allowed them to set aside $1.8 million for executive bonuses.

While 18,000 loose their jobs.



IMO, that just put fuel on the fire. For those that want to see this country become a socialist economy.:fire:

 

[Kevin Lang]

What are the union leaders giving their members who lost their jobs at Hostess?



The unions made them stop working and killed their employer, I think it's only fair that they help the former Hostess employees out with money from their own pockets. The unions broke it, why aren't they responsible for cleaning up the mess?

 

[EddieS'04]

Kevin,

I dought the unions will help either. They usualy dont. Not in Texas anyway. This is from the mouth of a retired union member..LOL

My issue is. Despite the strike. They most likly were bankrupt anyway. So most likly also miss management. It may not go far, but the bankrupty court should make them split the $1.8 million to all. Instead of all those that execs that made enough to retire anyway.



Down here the union doesnt call the strike. It is a vote taken by the employee's affected..

I think there were 7 plants that worked out off my union hall, PACE. Paper allied chemical and energy wwotkers. Each plant had its own contract.

 

[mike burns 3]

I read several stories about the shutdown and none of them mentioned the issues. Yes, I have seen unions cause problems but I have also seen management do some bad stuff. I have been through several union drives, most unsuccessful. All I can say about the one that was successful is that management team got the union they deserved.

 

[Bo Loo]

This is after the employees agreed to a pay reduction and top management received raises, some over 300%.

 

[Richard L]

Eddie,

I don't believe that Hostess would have gone bankrupt had it not been for the Union strike. It was probably a choice of either accept the Unions demands and eventually go bankrupt, or refuse the Union's demands and go bankrupt now.



Unions usually don't strike against companies that are going bankrupt...they usually only want to share the wealth, so if the company is making money, the Unions feel they are entitled to more money and benefits.



I am not a big fan of Unions, and also not in favor of Executives getting bonuses when the company is either losing money or going bankrupt. In this case I think this may be the rare exception.



The Union forced the company into bankruptcy and probably left little or no options for the company executives to save the company either way.



This would not be the first time that a Union has caused a prosperus company to shut it's doors because financially they could not meet the Unions demands for more pay or benefits.



It was the Baker's Union greed that cause Hostess to go bankrupt. They went all in and called Hostess' bluff....and Hostess simply had no choice but to fold.



...Rich



OK, I just saw something on the news about Hostess that may my previous post invalid.



It does indeed appear that Hostess was in financial straits and had asked workers to accept a pay cut to keep the company going. That's what the union had objected to...They were not seeking additional pay or benefits. The news article also mentioned that the company did not even have enough money to pay the full retirement entitlements to their workers??



That is WRONG and the Executives should not get any bonus until all the workers have their retirement funds restored.



Of course, they say that the Judge has allowed 19 executives to receive nearly $2 million. WRONG WRONG WRONG.



...Rich

 

[EddieS'04]

The news article also mentioned that the company did not even have enough money to pay the full retirement entitlements to their workers??

That $$$ should have been in a protected fund. The new private owners from Morocco, of my plant. Borrowed $8 million for upgrades. Then filed bankruptcy reorganize. They did this in the first year of ownership. Paid back 35cents on the dollar.



Our union lawyers took our pension plan to the judge. So they couldnt touch it. Otherwise it would have been gone. The owners knew how to play the system from the start.



Now that is one good thing my union did for us. Despite loosing and never gaining any wages or benifits for 8yrs. 2 1/2yrs under mobil and 5 1/2yrs under the owners, when I retired.



As I said before, Down south, not all union workers are hard heads. We gave so everone kept a job. But in the end they still had lay offs. When they promised not to. If we would ride it out and take consessions. They lied, and there kept coming up with missing budget $$. Everytime one of their exec resigned. Not traded on the market no one to answer to. So they kept getting away with it. We discovered that the replacement exec's knew each other. Something strange about that.



As union hourly we thought we were doing what was right. To keep the company in bussiness, and trying to keep everyone a job. We did, the uppercrust.....:fire:

 

[Richard L]

Eddie,

I agree with you that the employee's retirement monies should have been in a protected fund and not co-mingled with the assets of the company. I also agree that the Bakers Union should have made sure that was done. My guess is that the Union management was incompetent and not doing their job in protecting the employees retirement. Striking probably put the nail in the coffin and screwed the employees out of their jobs and retirement money.



...Rich

 

[mike burns 3]

Making the rich richer makes things better for all of us RIGHT!

 

[Richard L]

Mike VT,

I don't have any problem with the rich getting richer, just as long as it's being done fair and without cheating others. The Hostess executives getting a big fat bonus when the workers have been cheated out of their full retirement funds because of the executives mismanagemet...That is just WRONG WRONG WRONG



...Rich

 

[Bill V]

What are the union leaders giving their members who lost their jobs at Hostess?



The unions made them stop working and killed their employer, I think it's only fair that they help the former Hostess employees out with money from their own pockets. The unions broke it, why aren't they responsible for cleaning up the mess?

KL, you're clearly not familiar with the specifics of this particular situation. I don't know full details either--but I do know that it was a strike by the bakers' union, which represents a relatively small percentage of Hostess employees, which was at the center of the company shutting down. The vast majority of their employees were in the Teamsters, who were not part of the strike and were in fact opposed to the Baker's Union strike because of the likely outcome. I don't think they're anywhere close to the main target for fingerpointing in this case.