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Unions Bankrupt Another Great American Company.

Twinkies Maker Preparing for Chapter 11 Filing

Hostess Brands Inc. is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, said people familiar with the matter, a move that would mark the second significant court restructuring for the Twinkies and Wonder Bread baker in the past several years.

Once in bankruptcy court, Hostess will try to reduce debt and renegotiate labor contracts, many of them with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, the people said. Hostess plans to file court papers soon threatening to reject or modify labor contracts under applicable bankruptcy rules, the people said. Such moves provide troubled companies a bargaining chip to try and get concessions from unionized workers.

A Teamsters spokesman declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Hostess's other main union didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

It pays about $100 million a year into so-called multi-employer pension plans that cover workers at a wide array of companies, the people said. Hostess, whose pension plan is underfunded by about $2 billion, wants to rescind its obligations to that plan and start paying into a plan that only covers its own workers, one of the people said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204124204577151211961572458.html
 
This is what should have happened to GM and Crysler, but Obie HOPED he could CANGE things with taxpayer money.
What's sad is that Hostess went through the same thing in 2009, the Union wouldn't renegotiate their contract, and now were in 2012 an they're facing the same problem they had in 2009.

The same thing will happen again with GM and Chrysler who have massive deficits due to unsustainable pension and benefit plans. Hopefully, the 2nd time around we'll let them fail and there will be no bailouts. Then the union can be deballed, reforms can be made, and GM will return to prosperity.

Unions, which once protected working conditions and insured fair wages, are now just giant socialist welfare organizations that force employers to pay retired workers who are no longer working

Unions are destructive. They just are.
 
So how is it businesses weren't collapsing left and right during the 1950s....the HEIGHT of union membership???
Being Gordon Gecko, you should know the answer to that question. The Answer is, because there were few actual retirees collecting benefits, there was no medicare payroll tax,and the employer portion of Social security payroll taxes was much lower.

Boy, as an investor I've lost faith in you.
 

GordonGecko

President
Being Gordon Gecko, you should know the answer to that question. The Answer is, because there were few actual retirees collecting benefits, there was no medicare payroll tax,and the employer portion of Social security payroll taxes was much lower.

Boy, as an investor I've lost faith in you.
So basically, if we just allowed workers to retire and go into poor farms, businesses would succeed?
 

Number_58

I'm one of the deplorables lefty warns you about.
You know what Reppy's favorite make of automobile is??...Dodge...
 

Proud Progressive

Council Member
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is a reorganization of debt.

It's the modern and much used way for corporations to get rid of promised obligations to it's workers.

The only debtors that usually get burned are the workers and retirees.

It's a very Republican thing to do.

Their word means nothing.

They have no honor.
 

Lapcat

Governor
Well obviously (duh) because the economy wasn't in the crapper then.....like it is NOW......due to an unsustainable entitlement/freebie-minded socialist bent by the DemocRats running/ruining the country.

So how is it businesses weren't collapsing left and right during the 1950s....the HEIGHT of union membership???
 

Lapcat

Governor
Speaking of words that mean nothing and people that speak them having no honor....

what about the words from Obama that promised unemployment wouldn't go above 8% if he got his stimulus passed? Or about the hope and change BS he spewed to get elected, that promised a BETTER life for Americans, especially black Americans, which ALSO hasn't panned out?

And....are you really trying to bleat that ONLY Republicans declare bankruptcy? Really????

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is a reorganization of debt.

It's the modern and much used way for corporations to get rid of promised obligations to it's workers.

The only debtors that usually get burned are the workers and retirees.

It's a very Republican thing to do.

Their word means nothing.

They have no honor.
 

Lapcat

Governor
America can no longer afford to pay high-dollar union wages thanks to DemocRats running things for the past five years. And America sure as hell can't afford to pay lavish union pension programs either. So much for all the hopey changey HYPE.
 

connieb

Senator
I think it is a pretty raw deal to tell a person who is already retired or about to retire that the money they were promised for all their years of work is not there. They should not be able to do that.

What they should absolutely posivitively be able to do is to rescind their obligations to fund ANY pension plans for future or current young workes - I say anyone with less than 5 years in the company.

The fact that a company actually has to pay you for decades because you worked for them for 25 years is mind boggling to me. Seriously. I think it is ridiculous. Your employer owes you for the time you work there. Pension funds and unfunded pension liabilities are definitely the albatross around the necks of many corporations. As I said, I think they should not be able to change things up for poeple who do not have time to make a different plan, but the fact that they are held hostage by unions to pay benefits in the future to new and future employees is absolutely ridiculous.
 

Standpat

Council Member
Unions had not grown into the greedy and destructive practices they now use as STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE!
 
What's sad is that Hostess went through the same thing in 2009, the Union wouldn't renegotiate their contract, and now were in 2012 an they're facing the same problem they had in 2009.

The same thing will happen again with GM and Chrysler who have massive deficits due to unsustainable pension and benefit plans. Hopefully, the 2nd time around we'll let them fail and there will be no bailouts. Then the union can be deballed, reforms can be made, and GM will return to prosperity.

Unions, which once protected working conditions and insured fair wages, are now just giant socialist welfare organizations that force employers to pay retired workers who are no longer working

Unions are destructive. They just are.
This last bailout for Crysler was the second, the first was back in the 80's when Iacoca was managing the company because of Crysler's refusal to go to smaller cars and the unions. All the unions care about anymore is the dues that they will collect from their members. They do not care for the welfare of the members and could care less about the health of the company who's employees they represent. Unions have no place in American society today, they have gone the way of the buggy whip and solid rubber tires.
 
So how is it businesses weren't collapsing left and right during the 1950s....the HEIGHT of union membership???
Th 50's was a different era. We were just out of a major war and going into a second one with Korea. The mills were still up and operating in a war mode. Unions back than didn't have the attitude of killing the goose that layed the golden egg either. Pensions and benifits weren't as massive as they were today with the companies paying the whole cost of the pensions. That was part of it back then.
 
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is a reorganization of debt.

It's the modern and much used way for corporations to get rid of promised obligations to it's workers.

The only debtors that usually get burned are the workers and retirees.

It's a very Republican thing to do.

Their word means nothing.

They have no honor.
I know of no company that doesn't look at bankruptcy as a last ditch effort to clear their debts. The majority of companies in this country do not like the fact that they have to do this because of the hardship it brings to it's enployees and the company itself. However, as I said earlier the union officals do not care about their members as long as they are getting theirs. As far as retirement goes, that is the responsibility of the individual and not the company that individual works for. My grandfather worked in the steel mills of Johnstown, PA. He got a small pension from the mills and he saved for his retirement, and along with social security he was able to retire comfortably. He never had the attitude of the left of today that everyone else but me is responsible for me.
 

fairsheet

Senator
These pensions represent an essential part of the "deal", Hostess made with their employees. I'm surprised that so many presumptive "conservatives", would so blithely shout that the employees are "bad", for insisting upon the compensation both parties agreed to.

Not a single one of the snivel-shouters above, has ANYthing to offer in terms of solutions to this problem, other then to spew union-hate. If they were actually conservatives, they might have some ideas.
 
Not a single one of the snivel-shouters above, has ANYthing to offer in terms of solutions to this problem, other then to spew union-hate. If they were actually conservatives, they might have some ideas.
False.
There is a right to work bill that would end forced unionization and give employees of union companies the right to not be forced into a union just to get a job.

Here in Tennessee we are a right to work state, and a company called Snap On Tools located here for that reason. The company is non union and pays some of the highest wages in our area.

The unions sent in their stooges to try to organize the employees of Snap On and the employees sent them packing and told them not to come back.

Everyone has the responsibility to save and pay for their own retirement. Companies should not be required to pay people who used to make products and are no longer employed.

Unions have gone from protecting essential rights, and have become destructive to the very workers they were formed to protect, driving up prices, sending companies overseas and eventually costing their members their jobs.
 
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