Posted on 07/09/2013 3:34:11 AM PDT by grundle
Craig Davis, a former forklift operator at a Hostess cake plant in Emporia, Kan., has been unemployed since November, when the Twinkies maker shut its factories and began liquidation proceedings.
He could have applied to get his old job back now that the plant is churning out Twinkies, Zingers and Ding Dongs in preparation for a July 15 return to store shelves. But he said the current starting salary of about $11 an hour, with the chance to bump it to $14, is "a slap in the face."
"When I left, I was making $16.53 an hour, so I just didn't see the point," said Mr. Davis, who worked at the plant for almost 22 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Has nothing to do with what the position is worth...Has everything to do with the availability of illegal workers who flood the job market and will work for cheap...
Perhaps he shouldn’t have gone on strike when the company said they would close. He is facing the consequences of a bad decision.
Pray for America to Wake Up
Think about it. The company/union actually did this fork lift operator guy a disservice by escalating his pay for doing the same old job. What they should have done was cap his pay at whatever it was 20 years ago and that would have forced him to learn new skills so that he could take a higher paying job.
So instead of running a forklift at the age of 45 (or however old he is today), he could be running the entire plant and making a six figure income. We will never know however as this man never realized his true potential. He figured the union would also be there to provide and so 20 years ago he evidently decided that driving a forklift was all he ever had to do in life. A sad story, really. What a wasted life. He could have made something of himself.
That's right...Turn everyone into a skilled tradesman...60, 70 million of them...
They have filled the positions with legal workers, the immigration issue is a separate issue.
Your pity party is the reason the company bankrupt. He kept getting unjustified raises out of pity for his unequalness.
He destroyed Hostess
(unmentioned is laziness, a slothful preventer of advancement)
__________________________________________
What Pity Party?
I just pointed out that some people will never function beyond broom-pusher. That is a fact of life. It had nothing to do with the bankruptcy. Nothing to do with unequalness. Just a fact that some people here may be too stupid to face.
These wages are astronomic considering what they’ll be paying their Mexican replacements after amnesty.
The company went broke paying those prior wages.
The new owner would be an idiot not to cut wages, to control the largest cost variable.
Ive seen some old timers flip coins with the forks - yes - there is a difference
It’s easy to blame unions for these bankruptcy stories. However, what you don’t see or hear are the facts that actually forced it.
Like CEOs and CFOs who think the Company is their own personal gold mine. Spend their time on the Links or serving on multiple gold ribbon community comittees, flying around the country for Conferences.
If the wages of the workers were so high that it drove the company to file bankruptcy who was in charge of the Company dollars when the unions negotiated the contact?
You can damned sure bet that someone from the Company negotiated and AGREED to the terms.
Most likely they are the same folks that ended up with a Golden Parachute payout on their way out he door.
I have watched the same thing happen where I am employed. Upper management negotiates contracts, then piss and moan over their employee costs. It’s SO high they decide to offer Early Retirement for those above a certain age and years of Service claiming it will save them Hundreds fo thousands in pension payments...Well guess who takes that? Yeah Upper Management.
Now we find out because of under funding any replacement costs are actually higher than those that were here. So they rehire the new retirees as part time and refill the full time vacancy PLUS they paid out 50% annual gross for the incentive and the retirement costs are 4% higher for the new employees.
But Management blames the union? WTF!
I’m not sure how this can be considered a “wage cut” The individual had a job with one employer an a certain wage. He now has a job with another employer at a different wage. The jobs happen to be at the same location. He has the option of seeking employment elsewhere.
At least it's an American rathole...I am more concerned about the billions upon billions going to pay for muzlim mosques in the US and around the world...All that money to pay our enemies in the mid-east...The billions we donate to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank...
The billions going to pay Americans welfare benefits and food stamps who work but do not make enough money to support themselves...
Actually it was forklift drivers as well as every other overpaid union employee. Perhaps you should see how cheap Twinkies sell for and then work backwards to your input costs and then make that statement.
The company is not in business to employee people, it is in business to make a profit.
Pray for America to Wake Up
” You cant make it on $11.00 an hour if your’e a self-reliant family man. You could if you were in college and living on mommy and daddy’s dole but as a family man with responsibilities and all the bills that go along with; I can’t see it.”
Sounds like we need the government involved, and a program for men to apply for “family man status” which would provide “up to $6 per hour in income supplementation”
See then a “family man” could “make it” on his $11 an hour wage.
Don’t you see? the government isn’t the enemy, the government is the friend of the “family man”
You say that like that's a bad thing!
And yet we have teenagers operating Abrams tanks and Strykers. They seem to do OK.
I’ll point out that $11 per hour is the starting wage, here, with the potential to advance to $14 per hour. If he isn’t paid sick, holiday, or vacation pay, and he never gets to work overtime, that works out to about $26,000 per year. In an intact family with both spouses working similarly-compensated jobs, that’d provide a household income of $52,000 per year in a part of the country where that’s a decent, middle-class family income.
Let’s face it, the gentleman isn’t exactly covered in glory by working his way up the corporate ladder. He’s held a job near the bottom of the pile for 22 years. But as others have pointed out, maybe he’s not much better than that. Not everyone can be above average. It would be good for there to be jobs available for those who don’t go to college and really shouldn’t go to college, or even those for whom even trade school might be tough.
But what strikes me is that even at this late date, this man, no paragon of intellect or drive or ambition, can find a job, and if he works it diligently, and is married to someone who is his equal, they can enjoy a modest, decent life.
Teenagers don’t grow up the way they used to. When I was in high school South Carolina had STUDENT bus drivers. The minimum age to drive a school bus was 16. I would have been one had I not made one stupid error on the driving test, no mistakes were allowed. I don’t recall any accidents involving student drivers and they even drove the buses on trips such as to the state fair which involved driving at night to take the students home. Of course the average 16 year old then was in many ways more mature than most forty year olds now. By the time I reached the ripe old age of TWENTY THREE with an honorable discharge from the Navy, driving a new Mustang and earning the equivalent of at least sixty thousand a year now I was considered a failure. Why, you might ask, I didn’t have a wife and children!
Nope...It's all relative...With the illegals in the country and more to come, the employee market is filled millions beyond the max...
After the flood gates are wide open, those wages will likely drop to 7-8 dollars per hour or less...
These people are going to live and eat regardless of whether they are working or not...We are going to pay for it either thru higher product costs or higher taxes to feed and house these people...
You assume that the only peoplw willing and qualified ot operate a forklift for $11-$14 an hour (to start) are teenagers
Flawed argument based on bad assumption
post the job openings and see who responds. It may water your eyes
this does not mention the value of employer bennies, like obamacre
I suppose we can assume this guy is getting more than $11-$14 plus bennies in unemployment and has had almost 2 years tor etrain or find work elsewhere.
He has his future ahead of him, if it is in front of a TV so be it
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