Hostess is Toast

[wiigirl]

[beachlover9395]

I'm very sorry for all the workers that are affected by this.

I had forgotten that Hostess owned the Merita bread line. I've been eating Merita Old Fashioned white loaf sandwich bread my entire life. I've tried many other breads through the years, and they just don't measure up. So selfishly, I'm going to miss it terribly.

[luvmy3]

Originally Posted by timmac

The existence or lack of other jobs, however, does not necessarily dictate the required labor terms of whatever jobs do exist.

Even in a worst case where there is--quite literally--no other job a person could possibly take (seems to be less than likely), they can still work on starting their own business... be a handyman, paint walls, mow lawns. No, none of those options are glamorous or very high pay, but given the complaints about where they'd be coming from, that may not be an issue.

[foreUT]

Originally Posted by Princess Dolly

I don't think it's quite that simple. I think it gave the hedge funds an excuse to liquidate the company without looking like the bad guys. The end game was always liquidation.

I doubt if the liquidation will in any way cover the debt. Because of the over saturation of the market, the plants will probably not be valuable assets. In addition, the funds just lost their 2009, $130 million investment. I am sure there are a lot of people who wished they had walked away in 2009 and still had their $. Based on the Teamster's money-man comments, the company was in dire shape, which is why they were willing to accept the cuts to retain their jobs.

[SaraJayne]

Local workers found out they were losing their jobs from the news. Not from their bosses or management ~ from the news.

Regardless of how you feel about unions, etc, that is pretty damn crappy. The fact they announced it to the media before they told their workers makes me think even less of them (if that is possible).

[manning]

Back in the 60s a big camera store in Chicago faced unionization. The owner said if you do he would go out of business and he did. The employees wanted to decertify but the union wouldn't let them. I knew someone who worked there and he said the pay wasn't bad. Just some got greedy.

Owner said they have the right to form a union and he had a right to go out of business. He moved to Florida and opened another store.

[foreUT]

Originally Posted by pumba

I thought I heard on the news that this company took the money from the employees 401K ( I think that is what they said) (NOPE IT WAS PENSIONS) that they put in weekly and it is NO where....what did they do with it...they didnt put in anything and they didnt show where the money is...
To me that is stealing...
and we belonged to a union for the last 35 and a half years...they do good things and protect the workers...so I wont say anything about unions..vs non-unions...

If this is not right..please let me know ...I believe this is what I heard...

Wasn't one of the concessions to discontinue paying into the union pension funds until the company was financially able to do so again? Since the Teamsters reviewed the finances and agreed that concessions continued to be necessary, the money was not available: costs exceeded income, which is why they were again facing bankruptcy.

Pension funding is paid to the unions.

[mefordis]

Originally Posted by S. C.

And when hostess starts a new company, with a new name, and hires workers at half the pay with no benefits, I will never buy a product from them.
It would be different if CEO's all made wage and benefit cuts too.

I won't ever buy from them because they make garbage. Chemicals.. not real food.

[kidzmom3]

My brother worked for them for 27 years. He has 2 daughters in college and one in middle school. He is older than 50. He is a teamster driver and they voted to accept the deal...the bakers did not. Not sure what he is going to do.

[foreUT]

Originally Posted by kidzmom3

My brother worked for them for 27 years. He has 2 daughters in college and one in middle school. He is older than 50. He is a teamster driver and they voted to accept the deal...the bakers did not. Not sure what he is going to do.

I am sure there are a lot of former employees who wish that the BCTGM had listened to the Teamster's financial experts. My sympathies to your brother and all the others held captive by the union officials who, it is my understanding, did not permit their members to hold a secret ballot to determine whether or not to return to work.

[jen0610]

Originally Posted by maxiesmom

A friend of mine's dad worked for Hostess. Most Hostess workers had already taken pay cuts over the last couple of years. And the majority of them gave up even more this year! Most plants had already made more concessions, it was only a few plants that went on strike. So don't try and say they are all to blame for the company folding. It was in reality a few of them who decided to be stubborn. And everyone who worked for Hostess (even those who had already made concessions) lost their jobs.

Originally Posted by foreUT

I am sure there are a lot of former employees who wish that the BCTGM had listened to the Teamster's financial experts. My sympathies to your brother and all the others held captive by the union officials who, it is my understanding, did not permit their members to hold a secret ballot to determine whether or not to return to work.

Maxiesmom - nobody on here said that EVERYBODY who worked at Hostess was to blame. Pretty much everybody on here knows that is was one union group that put the screws to the rest of them. How many of the 18,500ish losing their jobs are actually members of the BCTGM? I am sure that it was a smaller percentage of the 18,500.

[3boymthr]

I lay this clearly on the hand of the unions, but not the current unions, rather the unions of the past - those employees of the 70s and 80s who have since retired. For those of you saying "unfunded" pensions and where is the money that was supposed to fund these pensions, I'm thinking that this obligation dates way back to the original companies that were bought back before Hostess became a conglomerate - the original Drakes and Wonder and... before they merged into one company. The BIG Companies of old where the employees got 100% employer paid pension for life after retirement and 100% employer paid medical for life after retirement (of course this was offered back when most people died 4 or 5 years after they retired). I read somewhere that it was not unfunded pension liabilities but rather pension "legacies". This would imply that they are operating under the onus of paying the salaries and medical insurance of people who retired 20 and 30 years ago (and maybe longer - possibly as far back as the 70s). I know that when I worked at Texas Instruments they had HUGE pension and medical liabilities that they had to budget for. The pension liabilities exceeded the salaries of all the active employees by 5 or 6 times. The same could be said for a hospital for which I use to do some HR benefit work. People are living way longer than they did when the promises to pay these pensions were made and many companies with these types of liabilities have long since foundered or folded. Most of the companies with these liabilities are just hoping to last longer than the employees to whom they are paying these benefits.

[akcire]

I am pretty sure the collapse of Hostess is the first sign of the apocalypse.

Also aren't Isreal and Palastine reving up again?

I need to go start digging my underground bunker. Seriously I have seen the new Fantasyland, I am at peace with the world.

[yeartolate]

Originally Posted by akcire

I am pretty sure the collapse of Hostess is the first sign of the apocalypse.

Also aren't Isreal and Palastine reving up again?

I need to go start digging my underground bunker. Seriously I have seen the new Fantasyland, I am at peace with the world.

On a positive note, the twinkies have a postapocalyptic shelf life so the cockroaches should survive.

[Albort]

Originally Posted by yeartolate

On a positive note, the twinkies have a postapocalyptic shelf life so the cockroaches should survive.

its okay... we still got these...