Thursday, November 15, 2012

Union Lemmings Jumping Off Hostess Brand Cliff

 
Looks like there are going to be a lot more union thugs out of work as Hostess Brands is threatening to fire all of it's workers if they end a strike tonight.
From the Mercury News: Hostess Brands said it likely won't make an announcement until Friday morning on whether it will move to liquidate its business, after the company had set a Thursday deadline for striking employees to return to work.
The maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread had warned employees that would file a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to unwind its business and sell off assets if plant operations didn't return to normal levels by 5 p.m. EST Thursday. That would result in the loss of about 18,000 jobs.
A spokesman for Hostess, Lance Ignon, said the company would likely make an announcement Friday after assessing plant operations Thursday evening.
Hostess, based in Irving, Texas, has already reached a contract agreement with its largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. But thousands of members in its second-biggest union went on strike late last week after rejecting in September a contract offer that cut wages and benefits. Officials for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union say the company stopped contributing to workers' pensions last year.
In an interview with Fox Business, Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn said many workers have already crossed picket lines this week to go back to work despite warnings by union leadership that they'd be fined. 
" The problem is we don't have enough crossing those lines to maintain normal production," said Rayburn, who first joined Hostess earlier this year as a restructuring expert.
Hostess says that production at about a dozen of the company's 33 plants has been seriously affected by the strike. Three plants were closed earlier this week.  http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_22006675/hostess-says-liquidation-decision-expected-friday
So, if a worker crosses the picket line to support their family by earning money for food, gas and other necessities, they are going to be fined by the thug union.
My friend capper says that union don't cost people their jobs, well, I guess he is wrong.  Again.
But even the Teamsters realize that the smaller thug union is wrong: 
The Teamsters meanwhile are urging the smaller union to hold a secret ballot on whether to continue striking. Citing its financial experts who had access to the company's books, the Teamsters say that Hostess' warning of liquidation is "not an empty threat or a negotiating tactic" but a certain outcome if workers continue striking.
The Teamsters also noted that the strike put its union members in the "horrible position" of deciding whether to cross picket lines.



1 comment:

  1. Hostess has been in trouble for a while. If they're so close to the edge that this will kill them, they were probably on borrowed time, anyway. You can bet that the famous Hostess brands and Wonder Bread will be picked up by other companies. No way in the world that Twinkies will stay gone.

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