Northwest Indiana Discussion

THOSE UNIONS REALLY SHOWED UM 18000 OUT OF WORK, STUPID DEMOCRAPS POOR FAT AZZ WONT HAVE ANYTHING TO EAT [/size]Hostess Brands Inc.,which makes Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Wonder Bread and other snacks, filed a motion Friday with U.S. Bankruptcy Court seeking permission to shutter its operations. The move comes after the company said striking workers across the country crippled its ability to maintain production.

The closing would mean the loss of about 18,500 jobs. The company said employees at its 33 factories were sent home and operations suspended Friday and its roughly 500 bakery outlet stores will stay open for several days to sell remaining products.

Walmart workers are planning a massive, nationwide walk off of work ahead of Black Friday, the shopping mania day after Thanksgiving, to pressure the world's largest retailer to improve its pay, hours, and health benefits.

Both Charlene and her husband, Greg, work at Walmart. Greg has worked at Walmart for six years, while Charlene has been an employee for 2 ½ years. This Thanksgiving, they were both scheduled to work. "No matter how hard we work, my husband and I can't catch up on our bills," said Charlene Fletcher.

And Sarah Spence, director of Corporate Communications for Wal-Mart, also told 4029TV.com, "This year, we're also providing them an additional 10 percent discount on one basket of goods.

If anyone had actually read the story [color=#FF0000]it is only 30% of the workforce on strike. Actually this is a great way for the company (that has been faltering of late) to blame someone else for their misfortunes. I predict two things may happen...Either they will settle or the owners will sell their company (for a profit) and re-open as a non-union shop. [/color]

However, as much as he and his fellow union bosses try to spin and finger point the results of the union’s actions that destroyed the Ding Dongs, in a Friday statement, bakery union boss Frank Hurt admits that his union members knew that their strike could kill Hostess:

Our members decided they were not going to take any more abuse from a company they have given so much to for so many years. They decided that they were not going to agree to another round of outrageous wage and benefit cuts and give up their pension only to see yet another management team fail and Wall Street vulture capitalists and ‘restructuring specialists’ walk away with untold millions of dollars.

Throughout this long and difficult process, BCTGM members showed tremendous courage, solidarity and devotion to principle. They were well aware of the potential consequences of their actions but stood strong for dignity, justice and respect.

So you think it's ok that the many executives of the company got up to 300% raises while they were asking workers for concessions for the 2nd time in 5 years?

While the media is busy blaming the union for Hostess's demise, nobody is reporting that CEO Brian Driscoll helped himself to a 300 percent pay increase. Just another example of the one percent literally taking food out of the mouths of everyone else -- in this case Twinkies and Ho Hos.

Driscoll's salary went from $750,000 to $2,550,000. Another executive's salary went from $500,000 to $900,000 and another doubled his salary from $375,000 to $656,256.

In the meantime, the company was eliminating its largest debt -- the Union Health and Welfare/Pension to which it owed $989,323,000 as reported in January 2012. If there's no money to pay workers and you're asking them to make concessions such as lower pay and higher insurance premiums, where do you get off doubling and tripling your salaries? Ask workers to take a pay cut while you suck every available dollar out of the company you can and steal their pensions and you wonder why they won't accept your deal?!

Creditors of Hostess Brands Inc. said in court papers the company may have "manipulated" its executives' salaries higher in the months leading up to its Chapter 11 filing, in what the creditors called a possible effort by Hostess to "sidestep" Bankruptcy Code compensation provisions.

In early February, Hostess had asked the bankruptcy judge to approve a sweet new employment deal for Driscoll. Its terms guaranteed him a base annual salary of $1.5 million, plus cash incentives and "long-term incentive" compensation of up to $2 million. If Hostess liquidated or Driscoll were fired without cause, he'd still get severance pay of $1.95 million as long as he honored a noncompete agreement.