Twilight for Twinkies? Hostess Workers Strike as Company Struggles

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I’m concerned for a very devout Catholic friend of mine who delivers Hostess products. He always gets samples and has some Twinkies for me! Anyway this puts a human face on the situation for me. I pray for the workers, and management too. I’m sure they would love to keep their jobs.
 
gamewell45 said:
There’s apparently more to the story then whats been described in this thread.

“While the company was demanding major concessions from union workers (wage and benefit cuts amounting to 27- 32% overall), the top ten executives of the company rewarded themselves with compensation increases, with one executive receiving a 300 percent increase.”

bctgm.org/2012/11/hostess-in-current-condition-because-of-failed-management/

How is that fair when your terminating pension contributions to your employees pension fund and demanding slashing salaries (which have already been slashed prior to this)? It should be a two-way street for both sides.
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snopes.com/politics/business/hostess.asp
Hostess, which had been contributing $100 million a year in pension costs for workers, offered workers a new contract that would’ve slashed that to $25 million a year, in addition to wage cuts and a 17 percent reduction in health benefits. The baker’s union rejected the offer and decided to strike.
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<…>
Five days after that article was published, the Wall Street Journal reported that Hostess’ new CEO, Gregory F. Rayburn, had announced he was slashing executive compensation, and that the company’s top four executives had temporarily agreed to cut their annual salaries to $1 while four other executives had agreed to return to their previous salary levels:
<…>
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Gregory F. Rayburn, a restructuring expert who took the helm at Hostess last month, said in an interview that the top four executives working under him had agreed to cut their annual salaries to $1 until the company emerges from bankruptcy or Dec. 31, whichever comes first.
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BroomWagon said:
Read today, and one can look it up to make sure, these workers were making $80,000 a year!
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I do not believe this is accurate. Well for the drivers at least. It may have been the amount they were making before the first bancruptcy.

My husband worked for them for about nine months and from what he heard from the other Route Sales Reps (RSR) were that every driver made $0.20 for every $1.00’s worth of product they sold. After the first backruptcy thet was cut in half so they went from making $0.20 to making $0.10 for every $1.00. Again this was just the delivery drivers. The one’s who stocked the shelves in the stores and the ones who delivered the bread. The snack root drivers had a different salery araingement and I have no idea what the bakers were making but I can not imagin Hostess only cutting RSR’s income and leaving the rest alone. In addition the base pay was cut.

But the $80,000.00 you are talking about could reflect what may have been the income for the RSR’s before the first bancruptcy.because it is about doubled what my husband was making when he worked for them after it. He made about $0.10 to the dollar as an RSR and his salary was $40K yearly. But the other thing that has to be considered too is as the income for these employees was being cut the cost of living has been going up.

Not sure how this all adds up I have no documents to show for it all I have is what he and the RSR’s were making and what they told him they were making before the last bankruptcy and I know they were again taking another hit in thier income from the second bankrupcy. I believe it was an aditional 8% off of thier earnings for the first year and then in the second year it was to drop to 4% and then with each year after it was to drop an aditional 1% untill it was back to making the full 10% on every dollar.
 
Faithdancer said:
I’m concerned for a very devout Catholic friend of mine who delivers Hostess products. He always gets samples and has some Twinkies for me! Anyway this puts a human face on the situation for me. I pray for the workers, and management too. I’m sure they would love to keep their jobs.
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Yes it does put a human face on it when you know someone who was actually going through it. My husband only worked for them for about 9 months and he came on board during the bankruptcy so it was not as much of a shock to him when it all fell out. But we both felt really bad for all the employees who had never had another job but Hostess. It hit them hard. They had compromised so much to keep their jobs and still lost them in the long run.:o
 
Twilight for Twinkies!?
Don’t tell me that Stephenie Meyer is going for Twinkies as well!?
 
simple_soul said:
I do not believe this is accurate. Well for the drivers at least. It may have been the amount they were making before the first bancruptcy.

My husband worked for them for about nine months and from what he heard from the other Route Sales Reps (RSR) were that every driver made $0.20 for every $1.00’s worth of product they sold. After the first backruptcy thet was cut in half so they went from making $0.20 to making $0.10 for every $1.00. Again this was just the delivery drivers. The one’s who stocked the shelves in the stores and the ones who delivered the bread. The snack root drivers had a different salery araingement and I have no idea what the bakers were making but I can not imagin Hostess only cutting RSR’s income and leaving the rest alone. In addition the base pay was cut.

But the $80,000.00 you are talking about could reflect what may have been the income for the RSR’s before the first bancruptcy.because it is about doubled what my husband was making when he worked for them after it. He made about $0.10 to the dollar as an RSR and his salary was $40K yearly. But the other thing that has to be considered too is as the income for these employees was being cut the cost of living has been going up.

Not sure how this all adds up I have no documents to show for it all I have is what he and the RSR’s were making and what they told him they were making before the last bankruptcy and I know they were again taking another hit in thier income from the second bankrupcy. I believe it was an aditional 8% off of thier earnings for the first year and then in the second year it was to drop to 4% and then with each year after it was to drop an aditional 1% untill it was back to making the full 10% on every dollar.
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When one talks about the workers on strike here, we are talking about the people who did under the company with their strike, not the cleaning ladies.

The Twinkies Makers. The workers who were striking!

We knew we were talking about the BAKERS ! NOT THE DRIVERS
.
Read the thread!!
 
In perfect Animal Farm style the upper leadership of this criminal gang pulls down from two to three times what the average worker they “represent” makes for actually working for a living. For instance Frank Hurt (a name you couldn’t make up) makes $262,654.00 to “guard the interests” of his members who make about $85,000 a year which itself is $35,000 more than the average salary for workers across America.
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coachisright.com/what-the-media-wont-tell-us-about-the-union-that-killed-hostess/
 
simple_soul said:
Yes it does put a human face on it when you know someone who was actually going through it. My husband only worked for them for about 9 months and he came on board during the bankruptcy so it was not as much of a shock to him when it all fell out. But we both felt really bad for all the employees who had never had another job but Hostess. It hit them hard. They had compromised so much to keep their jobs and still lost them in the long run.:o
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The Bakers lost the jobs for everyone it sounds like. Why not mention this!
 
Faithdancer said:
I’m concerned for a very devout Catholic friend of mine who delivers Hostess products. He always gets samples and has some Twinkies for me! Anyway this puts a human face on the situation for me. I pray for the workers, and management too. I’m sure they would love to keep their jobs.
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A friend of mine works for Hostess as well and has a big family, oh but here the Bakers wanted their high pensions and now EVERYONE is out of a Job.
 
BroomWagon said:
When one talks about the workers on strike here, we are talking about the people who did under the company with their strike, not the cleaning ladies.
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Actually, I would say that it is both the workers and the managers who have done in the company. Wherever I have seen greedy workers, there have also been greedy managers not too far away.
 
stinkcat_14 said:
Actually, I would say that it is both the workers and the managers who have done in the company. Wherever I have seen greedy workers, there have also been greedy managers not too far away.
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Right, I don’t disagree with this. But the workers under strike were the bakers. That’s all we are saying as a point of clarification.
 
BroomWagon said:
The Bakers lost the jobs for everyone it sounds like. Why not mention this!
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*Mainly because it was already mentioned earlier in the thread.

The other reason is because I know it has a lot more to do with it just being because of the bakers union not wanting to accept the new terms. that was more like the straw that broke the camel’s back from what I understand of the whole thing.
*
 
BroomWagon said:
When one talks about the workers on strike here, we are talking about the people who did under the company with their strike, not the cleaning ladies.

The Twinkies Makers. The workers who were striking!

We knew we were talking about the BAKERS ! NOT THE DRIVERS
.
Read the thread!!
Click to expand...
*I am not sure what your point is. Are you saying that the $80 reflected what the bakers were making?
If that is correct I am not disputing that. It very well could be. But I am not sure how accurate that is because of what I know about how the RSR’s were treated.

I hope you are not angry with me for having this understanding I did not mean to upset you…and yes I know that if the Bakers Union had accepted the new terms the RSR’s, my husband, would still have their jobs.But at the same time I can not blame them really.
But like I told a friend of mine I believe it was too little too late IMHO, not that it amounts to much.🤷
I am also not siding with the union on this. I believe union’s, in many cases, are in it more for their interests, or the companies interests, than the employee’s
Also, come to think about it, for a large family $80K is not much and will only streach so far.*
 
No more twinkie? Well, we may indeed be approaching the end times after all.
 
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