The twinkie thread

[green-lantern]

Like I've said, and no one seems to address...

If the management bought new machines and replaced the ones from the "1920s", and combined shipments to allow wonderbread AND hostess snacks to ship on the same trucks... how many employees would be laid off, and would the unions allow that?

The upper management probably saw that the company was going down and then took it for all its worth.

Now I think the company will be bought, the new machines will be bought, the deliveries will be on the same trucks, and it will only require 1/2 the work force... becoming profitable. I think demand certainly wasn't growing for twinkies, but unions probably were preventing the restructuring (lay offs) and while not 100% at fault, they certainly hold some blame.

I thought they said they needed to buy new stuff but I may have misread that.

I think you are about spot on though. The raises were a sign they gave up already. I don't think they would have hept the place open even if they did end the strike.

[IPD]

Btw, I think rather than limit CEO pay, raises in minimum wage may be better.

negative. raising minimum wage is like giving out pell-grants; all it does is raise the cost of college education by that amount--ACROSS THE BOARD.

todd, 50x was the "unofficial standard" as recently as 1980. as of 2012, 380x. and when you look at company value/stock performance vs. CEO pay, there is no correlation whatsoever.

it might be a pipe dream, but i can honestly not think of a better means by which companies will not only start better reigning-in the greed of "hired-guns", but will also help prevent insolubility problems which resulted in the bailouts we've been seeing. i know i quote nardelli a lot, but if you chopped his total compensation to 10% of what he actually made during that tenure ($50,000,000), you could put $450,000,000 towards infrastructure, dividends, success sharing, etc.

[NickS VR4]

I agree, but by raising minimum wage you can make a larger gap between benefits (earnings) of actually working, and those that only rely on entitlements. Right now there is little incentive IMO for those living on the govt to actually get a job at minimum wage.

Of course this will lead to a plea to increase entitlements to keep up with minimum wage... viscous cycle.

[IPD]

or we can just cut entitlements out altogether.

[fullracegt]

i just bought a twinkie from the corner store by house lol
he told me it was his last one lol

[IPD]

i've seen interviews on the news about people stocking up on twinkies. funny thing is, every single person they interviewed was overweight. hmmmm.....

[wingnut]

Hostess Mediation Fails, Liquidation To Proceed; Furious Laid Off Workers Now Turn On Labor Union | ZeroHedge

Scott Quenneville, a Hostess truck driver represented by the Teamsters, said he feels his colleagues were misled by Mr. Hurt into believing that a buyer would swoop in for the company. Mr. Hurt on Sunday said he thought there was a good chance a buyer would emerge who would give union members their jobs back.

"Frank misled a lot of people. He was not going to settle for anything less than closing the company down, because they didn't want that 8% pay cut," said Mr. Quenneville. "If you don't want the job, leave the job. Why ruin 18,000 jobs?"

And heres something intersting from that article...

Doug Mansky, a Hostess driver in Detroit and a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was in the process of moving to a cheaper condominium on Tuesday, after his union had agreed to an 8% pay cut that he said would shave $200 a week from his income. After Judge Drain cleared Hostess to impose the same new labor terms on the bakers union, they went on strike.

...eight percent of the truck drivers pay is 200 bucks? By my simple math, that means this guy is (was) making 2500 a WEEK, extrapolated to 130k a year, to deliver twinkees?!?

[RealMcCoy]

...eight percent of the truck drivers pay is 200 bucks? By my simple math, that means this guy is (was) making 2500 a WEEK, extrapolated to 130k a year, to deliver twinkees?!?

By the 50X rule, the upper management was obviously severly underpaid, and needed better compensation....

[IPD]

Hostess Mediation Fails, Liquidation To Proceed; Furious Laid Off Workers Now Turn On Labor Union | ZeroHedge

Scott Quenneville, a Hostess truck driver represented by the Teamsters, said he feels his colleagues were misled by Mr. Hurt into believing that a buyer would swoop in for the company. Mr. Hurt on Sunday said he thought there was a good chance a buyer would emerge who would give union members their jobs back.

"Frank misled a lot of people. He was not going to settle for anything less than closing the company down, because they didn't want that 8% pay cut," said Mr. Quenneville. "If you don't want the job, leave the job. Why ruin 18,000 jobs?"

And heres something intersting from that article...

Doug Mansky, a Hostess driver in Detroit and a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was in the process of moving to a cheaper condominium on Tuesday, after his union had agreed to an 8% pay cut that he said would shave $200 a week from his income. After Judge Drain cleared Hostess to impose the same new labor terms on the bakers union, they went on strike.

...eight percent of the truck drivers pay is 200 bucks? By my simple math, that means this guy is (was) making 2500 a WEEK, extrapolated to 130k a year, to deliver twinkees?!?

yep. something doesn't quite sit right. i know contractors in afghanistan who aren't even making that kind of money--and they are dodging mortars.

By the 50X rule, the upper management was obviously severly underpaid, and needed better compensation....

IF he was the lowest paid employee--which he wasn't. if the story about the line-worker having to take a pay cut down to $25,000 (2nd pay cut, after his original salary was $50,000), then it would mean that the CEO couldn't earn more than 2.5M--as opposed to the 8m or whatever he was trying to draw (based on the $50,000 salary). Cutting that to $25,000 would reduce maximum CEO compensation down to 1.25 million.