Twinkies is going out of business !

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Yup, I remember about Standard Oil so it was in history book.

Do you remember about model 500 telephone that at&t came to home to install so there was no telephone socket until 1970's.
model-500-telephone.jpg

Remember it? I have some.
 
This thread has gotten huge, and I haven't kept with it, like at all. I wondered if this had been brought up....apparently not? Seems kind of strange to just blame the Union. They wanted to cut pay, and benefits, not just retirement but health benefits also meanwhile they're giving 100% plus bonuses while filing for bankruptcy?? And they didn't think the Unions would kick up a stink about it?? If you talking about cutting you workers wages and benefits don't be giving yourself pay increases. That's just stupid, not to mention mean. But I'm pretty sure it's pretty shady and had more to do with the bankruptcy proceedings to make it look like the company wasn't making as much. The whole bit about them trying to explain that the CEO's raises were preplanned and done to "align with industry standards" is a crock. 300% wage increases? Who does that shit?

snopes.com: Hostess Executive Raises

Labor costs were over 35% of sales.....hard to fudge those much. They were overpaying labor roughly $7million a week.
 
How you found a math figure for labor cost?

There are many factor with labor cost, such as part time jobs, new non-union employees, temporaily employees, etc, so it will be less than that.
 
How you found a math figure for labor cost?

There are many factor with labor cost, such as part time jobs, new non-union employees, temporaily employees, etc, so it will be less than that.

That would make it more.
 
Labor costs were over 35% of sales.....hard to fudge those much. They were overpaying labor roughly $7million a week.

Thing is, if they're going to go to the union and say hey, we're doing pretty shitty, we need to cut everyone's pay and and their benefits, a year after they gave the brass not just raises but RAISES, they need to cut their own pay too. Do do anything else is ridonkulous.
 
everybody involved.
I disagree. Blue-collar workers have nothing to do with bankruptcy. CEOs failed to do their jobs as they knew that its products were getting less popular because they were not good for health and more people are aware of their healths nowsdays than before. They failed to make new products that would be healthy for customers. Blue-collar people only did their jobs as instructed. CEOs knew that the business was going down and yet they gave themselves a BIG raise. WTF? Again, they expect bonuses as it will close down soon. I think that they still owe retirees 160 millions dollars.
 
Thing is, if they're going to go to the union and say hey, we're doing pretty shitty, we need to cut everyone's pay and and their benefits, a year after they gave the brass not just raises but RAISES, they need to cut their own pay too. Do do anything else is ridonkulous.

Not really, CEO's are "talent" and usually pricey commodities. There are fewer at the top so increases in salary have little impact on the bottom line. When a company is in trouble it is fairly common to pay higher ups more to keep them from jumping off a sinking ship. Especially if it is believed those executives are the right people for turning the company around. (in this case that is somewhat suspect).
 
I disagree. Blue-collar workers have nothing to do with bankruptcy. CEOs failed to do their jobs as they knew that its products were getting less popular because they were not good for health and more people are aware of their healths nowsdays than before. They failed to make new products that would be healthy for customers. Blue-collar people only did their jobs as instructed. CEOs knew that the business was going down and yet they gave themselves a BIG raise. WTF? Again, they expect bonuses as it will close down soon. I think that they still owe retirees 160 millions dollars.

The biggest mistake management made was paying union labor $20/hr with a nice benefit package for squirting cream into a sponge cake.
 
The biggest mistake management made was paying union labor $20/hr with a nice benefit package for squirting cream into a sponge cake.
Depends on how many years of service. They don't pay everyone $20/hr. BTW, for long-time workers, $20/hr with good benefits is very reasonable due to the high cost of living! Where the hell have you been ?
 
Depends on how many years of service. They don't pay everyone $20/hr. BTW, for long-time workers, $20/hr with good benefits is very reasonable due to the high cost of living! Where the hell have you been ?

Actually it doesn't. Also "cost of living" is irrelevant.
 
The biggest mistake management made was paying union labor $20/hr with a nice benefit package for squirting cream into a sponge cake.

I have this feeling that the brass thinks that's what's involved but it's probably a lot more involved than that. But that's the mentality of management.

I used to run press at a screen printing factory. It was Salem Sportswear when I started, Fruit of the Loom bought them not long after, took about a year for things to start changing, then they only lasted for a bout a year that. See the "talent" figured all you had to do was a tshirt on the press, take it off, that monkeys could do it. Now everybody that worked there, we were all raving pot heads, smoked on our breaks and lunches lol but we got stuff done ;) But everybody knew what we did, and the higher up decided to start drug testing at hiring, but since we are already working there they couldn't drug test us. So they just started coming up with other reasons to fire us all. Now it usually takes about a year to train a press operator, I got my press after 6 months, but they gave it to me probably a little early. So what ended up happening is they fired all the operators and made people that had only been there a couple months operators. Meanwhile they were also hiring mexicans that didn't speak English so you couldn't even train them. They went from printing 40K shirts a shift to 5K. They couldn't fill their contracts and went out of business. I did a friggin happy dance like you wouldn't believe when I heard the news.

Bad Bad management. Blaming workers just doesn't make any sense.
 
Hostess closing gets OK from judge - Nov. 21, 2012


Drain scheduled another hearing for Nov. 29. At that time, he will consider Hostess' request for approval of $1.75 million in bonuses, ranging from $7,400 to $130,500, to be paid to 19 executives to oversee the liquidation of the company. Hostess said it needs to pay the bonuses to make sure key executives stay with the company through the end.

"The cessation of ... operations is not a simple matter of turning off the lights and shutting the doors," the company wrote in a court filing on Friday.

Unions at Hostess are on record opposing the bonus requests. The Justice Department's bankruptcy trustee in the case has also filed an objection to the bonus plan.

The Bakery Workers union has repeatedly said that mismanagement and the debt placed on the company by its current and past owners were the reasons for the company's failure, not the strike. It said its membership was overwhelmingly opposed to the wage and benefit concessions agreed to by other Hostess employees, including the majority of the 6,700 members of the Teamsters' union at Hostess.
 
Actually it doesn't. Also "cost of living" is irrelevant.

No, the cost of living is relevant because the wage is different between region and other region like Jackson, MS is cheaper since NYC/LA are more expensive.

Making federal minimum wage in LA is just extremely hell because it is expensive to rent the apartment.
 
I have this feeling that the brass thinks that's what's involved but it's probably a lot more involved than that. But that's the mentality of management.

I used to run press at a screen printing factory. It was Salem Sportswear when I started, Fruit of the Loom bought them not long after, took about a year for things to start changing, then they only lasted for a bout a year that. See the "talent" figured all you had to do was a tshirt on the press, take it off, that monkeys could do it. Now everybody that worked there, we were all raving pot heads, smoked on our breaks and lunches lol but we got stuff done ;) But everybody knew what we did, and the higher up decided to start drug testing at hiring, but since we are already working there they couldn't drug test us. So they just started coming up with other reasons to fire us all. Now it usually takes about a year to train a press operator, I got my press after 6 months, but they gave it to me probably a little early. So what ended up happening is they fired all the operators and made people that had only been there a couple months operators. Meanwhile they were also hiring mexicans that didn't speak English so you couldn't even train them. They went from printing 40K shirts a shift to 5K. They couldn't fill their contracts and went out of business. I did a friggin happy dance like you wouldn't believe when I heard the news.

Bad Bad management. Blaming workers just doesn't make any sense.

The thing that killed them more than anything else was technology, not to mention strikes in all four major sports (a large part of which was licensing) Tons of screeners were hurt during that time. Same thing happened to trading cards and Pro Player. Starter was hurt as well. FOTL was a terrible fit for them, but I think they were doomed anyway.

I still have some of the shirts. :)
 
I have this feeling that the brass thinks that's what's involved but it's probably a lot more involved than that. But that's the mentality of management.

I used to run press at a screen printing factory. It was Salem Sportswear when I started, Fruit of the Loom bought them not long after, took about a year for things to start changing, then they only lasted for a bout a year that. See the "talent" figured all you had to do was a tshirt on the press, take it off, that monkeys could do it. Now everybody that worked there, we were all raving pot heads, smoked on our breaks and lunches lol but we got stuff done ;) But everybody knew what we did, and the higher up decided to start drug testing at hiring, but since we are already working there they couldn't drug test us. So they just started coming up with other reasons to fire us all. Now it usually takes about a year to train a press operator, I got my press after 6 months, but they gave it to me probably a little early. So what ended up happening is they fired all the operators and made people that had only been there a couple months operators. Meanwhile they were also hiring mexicans that didn't speak English so you couldn't even train them. They went from printing 40K shirts a shift to 5K. They couldn't fill their contracts and went out of business. I did a friggin happy dance like you wouldn't believe when I heard the news.

Bad Bad management. Blaming workers just doesn't make any sense.

Yup, I agree with you.

Anyone blame on union only for bankrupt the company is just ignorant.
 
No, the cost of living is relevant because the wage is different between region and other region like Jackson, MS is cheaper since NYC/LA are more expensive.

Making federal minimum wage in LA is just extremely hell because it is expensive to rent the apartment.

Again, totally irrelevant to the business.
 
Who form the union? the workers, of course, not managers or executives.
 
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