Thread: Twinkies

Another recent thread blamed textile deaths in the recent fire on the absence of Unions.

Does anyone believe that the death of Hostess and the 18,000 jobs lost was the result of anything but Union greed?

sir, you are opening up a can of worms. Brace youryour self, heated arguements are comeing

What about management greed in the form of giving themselves bonuses whilst declaring bankruptcy?

Cue the crickets chirping...

Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

What about management greed in the form of giving themselves bonuses whilst declaring bankruptcy?

That appears to be SOP these days in companies. At least they waited to give bonuses to management until after they had secured concessions from the employees, in the company that used to work for, that was in bankruptcy protection. It always makes sense to reward the same people who managed a company into bankruptcy with bonuses. That is like praising a bus driver for not killing everyone in the bus he was driving when his incompetence caused him to go over a cliff.

Bob

Originally Posted by Crotalus

Another recent thread blamed textile deaths in the recent fire on the absence of Unions.

Does anyone believe that the death of Hostess and the 18,000 jobs lost was the result of anything but Union greed?

You're right. Damn that greedy union. Why I've been told those Union members earn around 200 grand a year and have a Cadillac health care plan and get 2 months vacation. Not only that they can retire after 20 years service with 150% of their pay.

.........

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You're right. Damn that greedy union. Why I've been told those Union members earn around 200 grand a year and have a Cadillac health care plan and get 2 months vacation. Not only that they can retire after 20 years service with 150% of their pay.

I wondered if I would get any real facts in this discussion. Greedy management?

Ripplewood Holdings injected 150 million into Hostess as it went down. They lost every dollar.

The unions will say management had given itself millions in pay raises while demanding worker cuts. (True, but the raises were barely a rounding error at a company that had lost almost half a billion bucks in two years; and Rayburn rescinded the raises anyway, making the brass work for a dollar a year apiece.)

And here’s what you won't hear the unions ever talk about:

--Hostess paid out almost $100 million in health benefits for retirees last year, but over half of it covered workers who never had worked at Hostess. The Teamsters’ onerous and antiquated “multi-employer pension plan” foists the pension obligations of a bankrupt company on to the balance sheets of surviving rivals—ensuring a steady death spiral in any declining industry. A similar “MEPP” almost killed YRC, one of the largest trucking companies.

--Union rules forced Hostess to run separate truck fleets for delivering bread vs. sweets. A sweets driver, serving a 7-11 store, was forbidden from restocking shelves with breads already delivered and waiting in the back—he had to call for a bread driver to swing by and handle.

--The union restrictions on the 5,500 distribution routes at Hostess made it unprofitable to serve tiny outlets, yet Hostess was barred from using smaller, sleeker—and non-union—distributors.

--Workers were asked to take an 8% pay cut and pay 17% of their health-care costs instead of zero. Welcome to the club, guys. For this, they would have received 25% ownership of Hostess plus $100 million of Hostess debt to be paid back to the unions.


Read more: Death of Twinkies: A Union Contract Hit | Fox Business

I think if you actually read both sides of the story, I think the Union refused to believe that the company was actually going to close.

Did you hear about non-union rescue workers from Alabama not being allowed to do any cleanup work in New Jersey?

Let's be gentlemen here.

I think the union did thier members a great diservice,When the Cobra health insurance ends and the unemployment benifits run dry,The members will detest the union they stood behind.
Screw them all,I miss my wonderbread.

Wonderbread is garbage. It always has been. Chemicals and air and almost no nutritional value.

The brand has been going downhill for years. When Continental bakery folded it was for a reason and it wasn't unions. Demand has shrunk for their products. It's your fault. You needed to buy more twinkies and snowballs and drakes cakes and all the rest of those health foods.

Like I've always said go ahead and blame unions. lets just outlaw all of them period and decree all American workers have their salary cut in half. I bet that will sure improve the bottom line for corporations.