Steve Petersen
Senior Veteran
Boeing unions struck. Company moved out of Washington. That's the way.
Could change the law so companies can't move.
Could change the law so companies can't move.
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You need to look at what Hostess actually is. It is much more than just Twinkies; Twinkies is just getting all the attention because of it being a part of Americana.
The brands owned by Hostess that are now out of business are:
They didn't only make junk food that was empty calories.
- Baker's Inn
- Beefsteak
- Blue Ribbon
- Bread du Jour
- Butternut Breads
- Colombo
- Cottons
- Di Carlo
- Dolly Madison
- Drake's
- Dutch Hearth
- Eddys
- Good Hearth
- Holsom
- Home Pride
- Hostess
- J.J. Nissen
- Merita
- Millbrook
- Mrs. Cubbison'sFoods
- Nature's Pride
- Parisian
- Standish Farms
- Sweetheart
- Twinkie
- Toscana
- Wonder Bread
Those companies tend to be what is termed a "closely held company" meaning that the management team is comprised of the owners who actually fill day to day roles within the physical company itself among other things that define this type of company. This tends to lead to a spirit of teamsmanship where every person within the company is seen as a member of a team whose goal is the success of the team as a whole. This situation tends to be ideal as their aren't really any sides in an argument, in other words, management and workers don't tend to take opposite sides on matters. In fact, most closely held companies have perks for their employees like holiday dinners at nice restaurants and things of that nature. Ironically, these types of businesses tend to be an "S" Corp or LLC which pay taxes at the individual rates.
This is, iirc, Hostess' 2nd Chapter 11 in less than a decade.
They were initially "saved" by a buyout launched through at least one PE firm (30%), hedge fund/s (30%), and a handful of other investors.
The company was loaded with more debt (already indebted at the first bankruptcy), ostensibly for upgrades that did not occur.
The Union/s agreed to layoffs, job cuts, reduced wages and benefits. Which did not result in the hoped-for turnaround.
Commodity price spikes for sugar, corn, and wheat have presented a struggle for all snack food companies including Hostess.
From the looks of it, even with the Union agreeing to further paycuts, there was no guarantee that Hostess would survive -- especially with raises at the top, any call-in demands for loans, their failing "infrastructure", and stiff competition from healthier competitors.
This was a long story, a shaggy dog story, and we're only catching the headlined last moments of the saga. Imo, the blame cannot be laid solely w/ the Union - especially given their previous deep concessions.
The problem is the entitlement mentality where people think they have a right to a job. The jobs belong to the owners of the companies who took the risks and put their blood sweat and tears into building the businesses. As my boss says, if the employee doesn't like his situation, he can find another situation (or build his own company).
You need to look at what Hostess actually is. It is much more than just Twinkies; Twinkies is just getting all the attention because of it being a part of Americana.
The brands owned by Hostess that are now out of business are:
They didn't only make junk food that was empty calories.
- Baker's Inn
- Beefsteak
- Blue Ribbon
- Bread du Jour
- Butternut Breads
- Colombo
- Cottons
- Di Carlo
- Dolly Madison
- Drake's
- Dutch Hearth
- Eddys
- Good Hearth
- Holsom
- Home Pride
- Hostess
- J.J. Nissen
- Merita
- Millbrook
- Mrs. Cubbison'sFoods
- Nature's Pride
- Parisian
- Standish Farms
- Sweetheart
- Twinkie
- Toscana
- Wonder Bread
Because right now they are forcing the company to close.
Do you know the harassment people face when they don't vote with the union?
Boeing unions struck. Company moved out of Washington. That's the way.
Could change the law so companies can't move.
It's worth remembering what happened in this case. The union, in the midst of a labor dispute, complained to the NLRB that Boeing was building a non-union factory in the right to work state of South Carolina to service a backlog of orders on its 787 Dreamliner airplanes. And the NLRB's general counsel, Lafe Solomon, responded by suing Boeing and demanding that they move work from the newly constructed $750 million South Carolina facility to the unionized Washington state. The suit was completely frivolous and unlikely to ultimately prevail. However, businesses, especially those that are publicly traded, hate uncertainty. So they decided to reach a settlement with the union. To be clear, nothing is a done deal, and there's no guarantee that NLRB will now drop its suit, but Solomon did call the agreement a "a very significant and hopeful development." Though Boeing did not agree to shut down its South Carolina facility, the company did agree to build its 737 MAX passenger jets in unionized Washington state, though they had been considering building them elsewhere. In addition, the Machinists report the tentative deal includes:
In other words, the Machinists were able to extract a lot of concessions from Boeing that they otherwise might not have gotten, because the Obama administration's NLRB filed a frivolous lawsuit on their behalf.
- Annual wage increases of 2 percent, plus cost-of-living adjustments;
- An incentive program intended to pay bonuses between 2 and 4 percent;
- A ratification bonus of $5,000 for each member;
- Increases to the formula for calculating pensions in each year of the pact; and
- Guarantees that new hires would continue to receive traditional pensions.
to what point...til the company has to shut down? That's not being fair that is being vindictive.
Hostess's plan to pay Mr. Driscoll $1.5 million in a yearly base salary plus millions more in additional awardsthe full details of which Hostess didn't disclosesparked the ire of a federal bankruptcy watchdog and one of the biggest unions in the case.
"They have amazing laws in this land that allow a company to file bankruptcy and give the CEO...such a lucrative contract while demanding deep, deep givebacks from its employees," Frank Hurt, the president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, or BCTGM, said in an interview last month. (source)
(emphasis added)In court papers, the creditors say testimony from Hostess's executive vice president of human resources indicates that "in the run-up to bankruptcy"--when Hostess had already hired bankruptcy attorneys--it was also working to shift its compensation structure. Hostess slashed bonuses payable only if certain performance goals were met and, on July 26, the company's compensation committee signed off on "substantial salary increases for numerous senior executives," the creditors said, calling the jumps "dramatic."(source)
Now they'll get 99 weeks of unemployment followed by a lifetime of disability payments.
You need to look at what Hostess actually is. It is much more than just Twinkies; Twinkies is just getting all the attention because of it being a part of Americana.
The brands owned by Hostess that are now out of business are:
They didn't only make junk food that was empty calories.
- Baker's Inn
- Beefsteak
- Blue Ribbon
- Bread du Jour
- Butternut Breads
- Colombo
- Cotton’s
- Di Carlo
- Dolly Madison
- Drake's
- Dutch Hearth
- Eddy’s
- Good Hearth
- Holsom
- Home Pride
- Hostess
- J.J. Nissen
- Merita
- Millbrook
- Mrs. Cubbison'sFoods
- Nature's Pride
- Parisian
- Standish Farms
- Sweetheart
- Twinkie
- Toscana
- Wonder Bread
The problem is the entitlement mentality where people think they have a right to a job.
The jobs belong to the owners of the companies who took the risks and put their blood sweat and tears into building the businesses.
As my boss says, if the employee doesn't like his situation, he can find another situation (or build his own company).
Simple answer - outsource all the work to Mexico.
Even highly profitable companies started outsourcing work long ago.
Why? Because Americans are expensive. Who can understand why these leeches want to earn a good living in the richest nation on earth, but for some reason they do.
Executive pay is now about 200times the average worker pay. That's because each CEO is working 200 times harder than any person on the production line. Each CEO puts in 200*40 = 8000 hours a week of work. Each CEO produces, directly 200 times more material than any worker.
And when the CEO's go home (or take the corporate jet...along with the wife and kids...which is allowed under some compensation packages) to get some rest it is well deserved.
I mean for someone who puts in 8000 hours a week in work, well that's hard!
Greed and envy of executive pay will always be prevalent among those who have no experience in such positions.
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