Does that mean Gibson has to come back and start making electric guitars again? That would be shame, after Obama worked so hard to shut them down!

P.S. You may be a moonbat now, but you'll always be a Precious Princess to me.

 

I'm not worried about those union children. They can eat foodstamps.

Look, you can't make it illegal for corporations to go out of business. If you pass a law like that, then what will the EPA do? They won't have any reason to exist.

 

So in other words the employees should control the company?? How the hell does that work?? They did not start the company someone else did it is not as oblow job said (you did not start this company) The unions SCREWED themselves they saw Hostess going through yet another bankruptcy and yet wanted MORE.

Just wait until you see the unions and their pension short falls in America, And then take a look at what their leaders makes and the buildings they buy why is it their members are not part of that???


The UNIONS SCREWED THEMSELVES it only took a small union to FUCK the rest of that company, and I for one am PROUD they did what t hey had to do unfortunately it came to this.

 

The mismanagement of Hostess Brands goes back to 1975 when they were bought by a struggling computer leasing company (yes, a computer leasing company) who decided to get into the low-tech business of bakeries. Their business model was basically if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. They got bigger and bigger, but all on borrowed money. They added enzymes to Wonder Bread to increase its shelf life, but it also affected its texture and taste. Between customers saying "ick" to the new and improved Wonder Bread and the popularity of the Atkins diet, sales plummeted. Over time stock prices went from an all time high of $34 to $2.05.

I really wonder if Romney's run for the presidency has really opened peoples eyes about exactly how hedge funds and private equity firms work. Of course these investments are only available to large entities like pension funds and high net worth individuals, but even those people, at least some of them, have scruples. I mean if I won the lottery and wanted to diversify my investments, I still wouldn't want to invest in the whole corporate raider industry. It's speculated that's one of the reasons Romney didn't want to disclose his tax returns. He didn't want people seeing how he invested his money. The blind trust excuse doesn't fly. His trustee is his personal lawyer and longtime friend.

http://www.thenation.com/article/170644/mitt-romneys-bailout-bonanza#

 

Actually I think the Romney/Ryan campaign did open a lot of people's eyes to just what vulture capitalism but not of course if you're a brainwashed parrot watching Fox News false propaganda.

Fox Blames Union for Hostess Bankruptcy - Ignores CEO Pay and Hedge Funds

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/fox-blames-union-hostess-bankruptcy-ignore

 

The unions did not want more. They wanted the status quo. That which already existed. What it came down to is since 2004 till the expiration of any new contract the workers would have had their wages reduced by 50 percent of the pre bankuptcy 2004 level. Had their health benefits cut and had them paying a very large percentage of it themselves. At that point you get people losing their homes and defaulting on loans. Supporting a family on 25,000 a year in some parts of the country Hostess had operations is next to impossible.

One worker even reported he had a salary of 48,000 per year pre 2004. 34,000 from the renegotiation's out of the first bankrutpcy and if they had approved the most current contract offer it would have taken his wages down to 25,000 per year plus paying the lions share of his families health care insurance. A 50 percent reduction in wages in 8 years (don't forget to factor in the health care). Plus the company would no longer contribute to the pension fund. They also trimmed the workforce by 10,000 plus workers from 2004 and closed 9 plus plants in the 2004 reorganization.

The company was just horribly mismanaged and then combine it with corporate raiders and near 19000 people just paid for it with their livelihoods.


Unions leaders don't make nearly as much as you think they do. You're probably making a correlation between CEO's of corps. and Elected union officials. It isn't even close.

 

As crazy as it sounds, there are companies that are controlled by the employees and it works. Each employee, from the janitor to the CEO, gets one vote. It's called a worker cooperative. Here's one:

http://www.alvaradostreetbakery.com/cooperative.html

Another system is an ESOP - Employee Share Ownership Program. Bob's Red Mill is one such company. When the founder decided to retire, rather than selling the company for millions, he gave it to his employees. That's right. GAVE IT to them.

http://www.bobsredmill.com/about-bob.html

 

Surprisingly very few people like Big Sobbing/Deidre79 have ever heard of [FONT=arial, helvetica] Dr Edward Demmings who rebuilt Japan's economy after World War II[/FONT] by doing exactly that. Meeting five basic human needs which hinged on the fact human beings want to be productive. In Demmings model the bosses job then became going to the workers and asking them what they needed to become more productive.

And that is exactly how Japan became the most productive nation in the world.

 

If we had some leadership in Washington which was interested in creating a positive business climate, maybe we could do a better job of retaining more of our iconic companies, and bring the unemployment down. But we don't. We have a President who has done more to create a hostile business climate than at any time in our history.

This is the new normal. We voted for this and we need to get used to this sort of thing happening more frequently. A different kind of President might look at this and wonder what could be done to turn things around so jobs are not lost. Our President will just look at this situation and find someone to blame. Someone to point his fingers at. Someone to be angry at and hate.

 

There are thousands of employee owned companies in the US, some are huge. Publix Super Markets is on the Fortune best 100 companies to work for, it is an ESOP.
http://www.nceo.org/articles/employee-ownership-100.

Most small businesses are owned by the employees, Mom & Pop, Pop & Son, Brother, Sisters, Aunts and Uncles, you name it. Millions of people are employed by such companies, yet our current leadership tends to throw them under the bus, by piling more and more regulations on them.

 

This morning on the news they were saying that it made $2.5 billion each year from sales worldwide and that someone was bound to snap it up!

 

Well I found out that part of the offer to the employees was an 8% cut, but then a 3% raise for 3 years. They also offered them a 25% stake in the company and 2 board seats on an 8 seat board. IF they can turn the company around that could be a good deal in the long run, but considering they are carrying so much debt it's going to be really hard. The bankruptcy judge told them all, management and union, to go through arbitration, so it's not over yet. They only thing is, those brands are valuable and since hedge funds like to make their money sooner rather than later, my guess is they will end up liquidating anyway.

 

Caption this Pic!



wanna go fishing?

 

Guess we wait 'til tomorrow evening to see what happens.



Interesting comment by the judge, highlighted below

 

I have a feeling that we will be seeing Hostess after this.. because it just seems too unreal for it to be happening. If they did reconstruction to their company, it might be saved but who knows.

 

Maybe Obama will give them a sweetheart GM deal.

 

Maybe they really are:

"Too Tasty To Fail"

 

Oh yeah, it HAD to be the union, right? It couldn't have been incompetent management that drove the company into bankruptcy. It couldn't have been yet another case of vulture capitalism trying to extract money out of what's left of the company. It couldn't have been the excessive bonuses paid to top executives even AFTER the company went into bankruptcy.

No, it was the unions, who had the gall to resist yet another round of pay and benefit cuts, when they were already being paid less then their competitors, with lower pension benefits. It's ALWAYS the unions at fault. Right?

 

Don't worry, tenguy. I'm sure your top executive friends will make out like bandits. They'll sell the brand names and pocket that money too.

Still can't admit that the GM deal was good for the workers AND for the country, can you?