As Union Bosses Spin Twinkies’ Demise, Bakers’ Union Boss Admits Union Knew Hostess Would Die

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LaborUnionReport @ RedState:

With the demise of 18,000 jobs weighing on their shoulders (though certainly not their consciousness’) and just in time for the Sunday morning talk shows union bosses are now trying desperately to point fingers at the victim (and Mitt Romney) for the union’s strike that ultimately destroyed Hostess and its 18,000 jobs. This blame game is going on despite the fact that the bakers’ union knew that its strike could, ultimately, lead to the company’s closure.

Ranging from the AFL-CIO’s Big Daddy Rich Trumka to the bakers’ union bosses who pulled the trigger by calling the strike that killed Twinkie the Kid, unions are now in full spin mode to make America believe that it was the company and Wall Street–not the union that called the strikethat caused the company to go out of business.

With Hostess brands’ corporate corpse not even cold yet due to the nationwide union strike, the AFL-CIO’s Trumka issued a statement on Friday blaming Wall Street for the company’s crash:

What’s happening with Hostess Brands is a microcosm of what’s wrong with America, as Bain-style Wall Street vultures make themselves rich by making America poor. Crony capitalism and consistently poor management drove Hostess into the ground, but its workers are paying the price. These workers, who consistently make great products Americans love and have offered multiple concessions, want their company to succeed. They have bravely taken a stand against the corporate race-to-the-bottom. And now they and their communities are suffering the tragedy of a needless layoff. This is wrong. It has to stop. It’s wrecking America.

The problem with Trumka’s lie-filled logic is that Wall Street didn’t call the strike and Trumka fails to address the fact that without Wall Street investors investing in Hostess, the company,with its shrinking market and overly-burdensome union contracts would have likely died years ago.

In 2004, the makers of Twinkies first filed for bankruptcy, a five-year process that ranks among the longest such proceedings in U.S. history. The company continued to struggle financially, and now risks complete liquidation, as it cannot make payments on its $700 million line of credit, has $2 billion in unfunded pension obligations to retired employees, and owes $860 million in current debt.

Even more important, however, is the fact that, although they didn’t like it, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (with 6700 members’ jobs on the line) approved of the same concessionary contract that Hostess was seeking of the bakers’ union.

Though Teamster bosses are now trying to blame Hostess for its demise as well, late last week, the Teamsters had called on the bakery union to allow its members to vote, even going so far as to chastise the bakery union’s actions:

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Being jobless is so much better than accepting an 8% pay cut….Whomever gave the advice that the members should vote no on the contract offer should be strung from a tree…It always astounds me the blind faith members have in their agents only to get screwed by them…

The whole UNION element is about to be drawn out of the equation…..

Mexican company Grupo Bimbo is looking to buy the RECIPES from Hostess.
Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo is the world’s largest bread baking firm.
Grupo Bimbo owns parts of Sarah Lee, Entenmann’s and Thomas English Muffins.
Grupo Bimbo is reportedly worth $4 billion.

TWINKIE RECIPE:
http://www.wdtn.com/dpps/entertainment/dining/sweet-eats-weekly-jan-13-2012-nt12-tvw_4038987#.UKls44Zj7Sj

I wonder if the average union member knows how much Mr. Piggy makes in a year? (I specifically did not say “earns”)
Hint: It’s more than POTUS.
He doesn’t get hurt when his lemmings vote to strike.
They lose their jobs and he makes the usual squealing noises. “It’s their fault!” *points at group of squirrels*.

If it has a union label, I ain’t buying it.

A few important details seem to have been left out of the anti-union version of the tale:

Hostess has gone through bankruptcy proceedings twice in recent years. The first time was in 2004, with the corporation $648.5 million in debt. Union concessions were negotiated. Hostess came out bankruptcy in 2009, with total corporate debt increased to over $800 million.

The second bankruptcy was earlier this year, by which time corporate debt had risen to $850 million, with an additional $180 million in accrued Workers Compensation liabilities. Hostess stopped paying into their workers’ pension fund. They demanded an immediate pay cut of 8 percent, and future pay cuts that would eventually total 27 percent to 32 percent. That’s the contract union members rejected.

Meanwhile:

According to The Wall Street Journal, in April Hostess’ creditors noted that Hostess had dramatically increased executive pay, including increasing CEO compensation from $750,000 to $2.25 million. According to the Journal, Hostess’ creditors called the move “a possible effort to ‘sidestep’ Bankruptcy Code compensation programs.”

Media Matters also make another point: Hostess products just weren’t selling as well as they once did.

@Petercat, #3:

If it has a union label, I ain’t buying it.

Yeah, go for that Made in China label. That’s the patriotic thing to do.

I am getting very dizzy from ALL THE SPIN in the LAST 4 years..disgusting… The blame game….keeps going on in spite of the illusion these are suppose to be intelligent people…it is really getting disgusting… and the rest of America follows suit….

I was in a small store the other day and when I walked in the young man behind the counter was talking to a young girl 18 or so with Downs Syndrome…she apparently had asked him if she left something there, or outside the store [not really sure what she was looking for] at any rate the young guy told her no, he didn’t see it and could she be referring to what she was wearing around her neck? No, she said I don’t know what I did with it… and the young guy said he was sorry he could not help her….her reply? Why are you sorry? I was the one who misplaced it I have no one to blame but myself… Wow!!! Could a TON OF PEOPLE take a lesson from this young lady…!!!

Sad isn’t it?? ? Even a young girl, a Downs Syndrome young girl, who probably has had quite a few challenges before, and a few ahead of her, has more sense of responsibility then these asshats…and a lot of other ‘victim syndrome’ asshats in all of America!!

If Trumpka is so smart, why doesn’t his union buy Hostess and save all those jobs? Since he claims to know what’s wrong with Ameerica, lets see him step up to the plate and show us.

@Greg:

So now, the Baker’s union president, who makes almost $300,000 a year, still has his job while the people he was advising have lost theirs.

And if Hostess Brands were not selling as well as they once did, much like GM, should Obama have given them a bailout? Don’t you want to pay for my Twinkies? Oh, that’s right, you are a taker, not a giver, when it comes to taxes.

what greg doesn’t want you see is that this is proof of how little unions care about the little guy. That is why he’s trying to deflect blame by claiming they would have gone under anyway.
6000 cost 12,000 more to be out of work. THIS is what the dems really stand for.

@Hard Right:

The Teamsters Union said “Hey, I guess we can live with an 8% cut in pay. It’s better than no job at all.”

The Baker’s union management said “No way. No cuts. We’ll strike.

And strike they did. Now those Teamsters who tried to work through the problem (the Teamsters were shown the Hostess Brands books earlier this year) are also out of a job because the Baker’s union big wigs wanted to throw their weight around.

The Teamster’s Union is not part of the AFL-CIO, headed by Richard Trumka, the Baker’s union is.

@retire05: Hostess was not responsible for as much of the economy as GM.

@Liberal1 (Objectivity):

Again, like the true Marxist you are, Lib1, you seem to think it is OK for the federal government (i.e. the taxpayers) to pick winners and losers.

Remember this; you can’t eat what GM makes.