What REALLY happened to the Twinkies

Prince Of Dorkness

We talked in another thread about how Hostess CEOs and top board members had given themselves MASSIVE raises earlier this year. The CEO gave himself a 300% raise from $700,000 to $2.5 Million.

We also were told that the Union people were the lazy scum of the earth who had insisted on more and more and more money and how Unions had driven them to bankruptcy with their demands.



What was this last/best/final offer from Hostess? You'd never know by watching the main stream media tell the story. So here you go...

1) 8% hourly pay cut in year 1 with additional cuts totaling 27% over 5 years. Currently, someone who makes $16.12 an hour at TOP rate of pay in the bakery would drop to $11.26 in 5 years.
2)The employees put $3+ per hour as a Union contribution to their pensions. That had been 'borrowed' by the company until they could be profitable again. Then they would pay it all back. But the last offer was that they would never pay it back. They would keep it.
3) Doubling of weekly insurance premium.
4) Lowering of overall quality of insurance plan.
5) TOTAL withdrawal from ALL pensions. If they don't have it now they never will.



From an employee...

"Remember how I said I made $48,000 in 2005 and $34,000 last year? I would make $25,000 in 5 years if I took their offer.

It will be hard to replace the job I had, but it will be easy to replace the job they were trying to give me.
That $3+ per hour they steal totaled $50 million last year that they never paid us. They sold $2.5 BILLION in product last year. If they can't make this profitable without stealing my money then good riddance."

And I agree.

THAT is where Hostess went. Welcome to the new America where workers are fucked over by the CEOs they made rich and then told they're lazy and "want stuff."

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/1 ... ss-Bankery

DS1119

Please tell the rest of the story. :corn:

Thirty Bills Unpaid

DS1119 wrote:

Please tell the rest of the story. :corn:

Why don't you tell us something?

DS1119

Thirty Bills Unpaid wrote:

DS1119 wrote:

Please tell the rest of the story. :corn:

Why don't you tell us something?

Don't need to. It's out there...but then again we can't trust the "main stream" media. We need to trust these rinky dink media sources who must be the real truth deliverers.


Try google.com and read as many articles as you can and form your own opinion.

green_girl

I hate to see workers exploited, but I can't mourn the loss of some of the worst junk food out there.
Compare what junk food workers make to how little field workers make picking REAL food.
Yet, somehow one apple can still cost as much one Twinkie.

gabers

DS1119 wrote:

Thirty Bills Unpaid wrote:

DS1119 wrote:

Please tell the rest of the story. :corn:

Why don't you tell us something?

Don't need to. It's out there...but then again we can't trust the "main stream" media. We need to trust these rinky dink media sources who must be the real truth deliverers.


Try google.com and read as many articles as you can and form your own opinion.

So you only trust news when it comes from one of the big news outlets? Where does Salon.com fit in your world of reputable websites?

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/20/vulture ... _twinkies/

:roll:

Everyone loves to blame the unions in the red states. Even when presented facts that say otherwise.

Indifference

A different angle:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 12612.html

MotoDC

Half right, but still missing the point. Troubles for Hostess began long before this strike and are largely due to mismanagement. Hard to argue that the CEO deserved any of his raises. However, the implication that a CEO's salary has any real, direct impact on the financial stability of a company is a major stretch. Employees salaries as a whole are a much, much larger component of a company's cost structure than any one executive, no matter how overpaid.

Assuming those 18,500 employees were all making the Federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour, and assuming a 1,900 hour year (reasonable approximation for an FTE with holidays and time off), that's around $255 million. Giving each of them just a $1 raise pushes that cost to $290 million. Simple math, I know, but it illustrates the reason that employee wages are more often a factor in shutting down operations that executive pay.

djklambake

This whole thing is a fucking shame.

In other cultures the CEOs are encouraged to kill themselves when they've brought shame to their companies.