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 ...
We are watching the Men who made America and it is interesting the method's Carnegie went to with his manager Fisk to kill over worked, really under paid for the dangerous jobs they did and in dangerous conditions. The stand off/strike resulted in 9 workers dead...Pinkerton's killed them willy nilly, the workers were armed at best with rocks. They shot them like sitting ducks in one of those shooting gallery things. Some of them barely 18.
I can see how unions got a foot hold, but they have FAR exceeded what they originally were about worker safety and a fair wage for the job performed.
My dad was a boiler maker in one of the largest steel mills in E. Chicago, IN, Youngstown Sheet and Tube. Union was useless when he accidentally fell and damaged his neck and spine and was injured to the point he could no longer do his job.
For me it is more GOVERNMENT UNIONS they are the WORST on the planet! They actually don’t have to WORK. Just draw that big fat pay check.
Two things - (1) they were on company property and preventing the company from hiring new people and conducting its business and (2) there's quite a bit of union myth-making involved on this incident, if the left-leaning Wikipedia is to be believed:
On July 6, 1892, during the Homestead Strike, 300 Pinkerton detectives from New York and Chicago were called in by Carnegie Steel's Henry Clay Frick to protect the Pittsburgh area mill and strikebreakers. This resulted in a fire fight and siege in which 16 men were killed (seven Pinkertons and nine strikers). To restore order two brigades of the Pennsylvania militia were called out by the Governor.Unions couldn't exist without an anti-trust exemption from the government. How is it fair that unions can band together to go after employers, whereas employers can't band together to go after unions? In a democracy, unions have the whip hand - they can get legislation passed that benefits unions, whereas employers are relentlessly fighting rearguard actions. In my view, unions ought to have their anti-trust exemption revoked.
A Teamster retiree called into a local talk show a couple of days ago complaining that his pension is being cut due to the Hostess workers’ pension contributions no longer being paid for.
their union screwed these stupid people and now they are mad..what did they expect when they price themselves out of the market?
[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.]
That means he was making $120,000 a year plus benefits. After the 8% cut he would have been making $110,400 plus benefits (including a 3% annual raise starting next year). Wonder what his unemployment will pay?
UN...FRIGGIN... BELIEVABLE. This self-centered jerk is making $2500.00 a WEEK as a delivery driver of cupcakes? That is $10,000 dollars a MONTH, $120,000 dollars a year (Not to mention all his healthcare benefits, pension/s, etc.) and he wants my heart to bleed because he has to move out of his mansion in a gated community into a mansion in a not so gated community? F*** 'EM. Salaries like this is what has driven so many unionized companies out of business and/or overseas. No wonder the prices of everything is skyrocketing.
Sheeeeeez.... When will people pull their heads out?
"God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
That’s the fun part of liquidation, nobody will buy the company which includes the union contracts, they’ll buy the recipes and logos.
A guy driving a delivery truck makes more than 98% of the airline pilots in the US. Hmmm, seems odd.
Yum!
In my house, Sara Lee which is Bimbo product, is the only bread we eat. It is always fresh.
Now they are eligible for ObamaFone!!! And eternal unemployment benefits
If this is true then it wasn't the Baker's Union that was bankrupting the company but the Teamsters and they weren't striking and pulling down over $120,000/yr. I wonder bread wonder why???? Unless he misspoke and meant $200 a month which is a more credible $30,000 + bennies.
Actually, there were two unions involved ... Teamsters and the Bakery union. Teamsters AGREED to the cuts, the Bakery union was the weevil in the bread that spoiled it for everyone. “Knowing” how the Teamsters seem to act when things don’t go their way ..... do you think the Bakery union guys who blew the whole deal for everybody maybe are a little nervous and watching their backs these days ...hmmm?
Grupo Bimbo makes their stuff for the Mexican market. Most likely they’ll buy the rights to the brand in NA and then manufacture the stuff in Mexico to sell north of the border. Bye, bye union jobs...
So the workers didn’t care if the company they worked for went under, just as long as someone else bought them and out and they could benefit by it. SCREW ‘EM
Typical liberals - slow learners. Now that the company they used to work for is dead, now that they are losing their high-pay unskilled jobs, and now that it’s too late to change the outcome - finally they are learning. The union used them and then killed their jobs because the goons decided the showdown would be good for union leaders in general, regardless of the damage to union workers.
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