Posted on 11/20/2012 7:49:57 PM PST by Nachum
Last week, when discussing the next steps for the company, and specifically the hope that mediation may resolve the epic animosity between management and workers, we stated that "What makes a mediation improbable is that the antagonism between the feuding sides has certainly hit a level of no return: "Several unions also objected to the company's plans, saying they made "a mockery" of laws protecting collective bargaining agreements in bankruptcy. The Teamsters, which represents 7,900 Hostess workers, said the company's plan would improperly cut the ability of remaining workers to use sick days and vacation." Sure enough, moments ago we learned that mediation has now failed and the liquidation may proceed. And since in America nobody understands that proper sequence of events involved in a bankruptcy liquidation, where the valuable parts always end up being acquired by someone, in this case the Twinkie brand and recipe, let the pointless Ebay bidding wars over twinkies continue. As for what really happens next, if indeed Bimbo is prohibited from acquiring the assets in the Stalking Horse auction due to anti-trust limitations, then the buyer will almost certainly be a "financial", i.e., another PE firm, whose coming means the end of any hopes and dreams of preserving union status at fresh start Hostess, or whatever the new firm will be named.
From the WSJ:
Hostess Brands Inc. said Tuesday night it would proceed with liquidation plans after mediation fails.
Earlier Tuesday, the head
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Not really since it's the workers themselves who have to vote on whether or not to strike......The union bargaining committee threatened the company with the strike but it was the workers who voted to walk...
I have no doubt that many of them were more than willing to take the proposed cuts in order to keep their jobs but they were outnumbered.
But I’m not talking about the union members. I’m talking about the thousands of non-union workers filing a lawsuit against the union.
Then I would say no to that question also....
The auto supplier I worked for closed down two plants, one in Gary Indiana and the other in Clinton, Michigan back in the early 80's because of their refusal to take concessions. That allowed my plant in Detroit to stay open......
This shows that a lot of union types will mislead and lie as readily as they'll breathe and that almost all of them are no less selfish than the executive management they complain about.
yep. I notice.
I also notice that more troops have died in AFG in the past 4 years than in the previous 8...
Right to work and hire at will states are not all they are cracked up to be. Yes, we have jobs but the companies don’t care anything at all about the employees because they know they can treat them any way they want to treat them. I hate unions as much as anybody here but there needs to be a middle ground. TN has no labor laws except for the Federal laws. The company I work for is a major employer and we are forced to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week whether we are able to or not. I worked 168 hours in the last 15 days. I worked 12 hours a day for 7 days on first shift, got one day off and worked 7 nights for 12 hours a night. I’ve been there 36 years and have never been treated as badly as we are now. The major company that bought us recently is H*** to work for. They fire people over 50 for no reason just because they can. All of us over 50 are walking on eggshells all the time because by TN law they can hire and fire at will. I am 58 and have been a faithful employee for almost 36 years with a perfect work record but I can’t continue to work like this.
Be careful what you wish for.
The investor is not bound by old union contracts. He can set up shop in a right to work state, or even offshore it, and resume pumping out twinkies without the expense and headache of dealing with unions.
Bankruptcy is a fresh start for a food that never goes stale.
Do any Freepers remember Eastern Airlines? The mechanics union drove them out of business.
Such are the laws in the US that even if a group of disgruntled union employees approached Hostess on their own with a new “union” they would not be sanctioned to do so, and as such Hostess could not talk with them (aside from the personal danger to the “scabs” from their thug former leaders/members to even try to do such a thing from mediation). In a normal real world— this type of thing would occur and the company could save their jobs. It is like there is a total I want it now mentality— and the hell with the future.
Admittedly, companies do not honor any loyalty— unless it is in their corporate philosophy to do so. And even then loyalty can be unrewarded by the hazards of business and failures. Speaking of really big businesses, they simply do not care, and the management training trains to this expectation behaviourally.
Please also keep in mind that the dems will NOT give up on card check, trying to create the same animus in small family companies with 200 or fewer employees. Thank deMAOcrats. They will never see it that way, what few dems like to think they are patriots, on their way to raw labor power, and continue to enable the Cloward Piven dismantling of our country and freedom.
We have foresaken God and our American roots. We deserve this, all of us to greater or lesser extent, as partakers in this system under this government elected by our friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
FROM THE ARTICLE:
Doug Mansky, a Hostess driver in Detroit and a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was in the process of moving to a cheaper condominium on Tuesday, after his union had agreed to an 8% pay cut that he said would shave $200 a week from his income. After Judge Drain cleared Hostess to impose the same new labor terms on the bakers union, they went on strike.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
If $200 per week were shaved off his income, he was making $2500 per week = $130,000 per year. Most people will have little sympathy for him.
I have even heard a few morons stating there is no judge in bankruptcy court only a trustee. news to all the nation’s bankruptcy judges.
Also in Chapter 11, the debtor in posession, IS the trustee.
This is a chapter 7 and thus has a court appointed trustee.
This makes me thing the owners as “going galt”.
reminds me of the end of Fountainhead. The “union” boss wins the battle but the newspaper is shut down PERMANENTLY.
LOL! You're a better baker than I, apparently. Mine always has a good flavor, but the fluffy texture always eludes me.
It just arrived up here.
I have now eaten it once.
That was enough for this lifetime.
It just arrived up here.
I have now eaten it once.
That was enough for this lifetime.
Fluffiness requires a finer grind of flour than the “bread flour” that you can get in the store. I prefer rustic breads, so my loaves are not exactly fluffy. They aren’t heavy, though. The single biggest factor in getting a good rise is the yeast. The stuff they sell in packets at supermarkets is usually at the end of its rope. I get mine from a local Amish market.
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