Will This Be Blamed On Sandy Too?

Following yesterday's news that the Hostess mediation with its workers has collapsed, formalized earlier today, we get the next update which will likely make for a less than happy thankgsiving for a whole lot of former workers:

• HOSTESS CEO SAYS MUST TERMINATE 15,000 EMPLOYEES TODAY

We wonder if this surge in initial claims reported next week will also be attributed to Sandy?

Comments

[stinkhammer]

if they fire me today; i'm taking my red swingline with me!

[slaughterer]

Memo

From: Hostess CEO

To: My 15,000 employees

Happy Thanksgiving.  You are all fired.

Management can collect bonus after we sell the last Twinkies machine.

(Cue: Market surge.  CNBC spin.  And Krugman OpEd seeing this as positive.)

[MillionDollarBonus_]

If the executives of this company had taken a pay cut, the company would have been saved. I've done the math, and I calculate that executive pay was 30% of revenue. The unions had no responsibility at all. Only rich people have personal responsibility, not normal people like me.

[EscapeKey]

1/10.

I'm sorry, this is simply terrible trolling.

A simple google search would have told you that Hostess executive salaries were cut to $1 back in April.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/90283695-big-number-hostess-slashes-execu...

You could at the very least have said "compensation package".

[MillionDollarBonus_]

Ok smart Alec ... so you support rich successful executive bigshots over average Joe unions just trying to get a fair unconditional pension contribution? Trickle down economics doesn't work moron. 

[camaro68ss]

MDB, your brain is to small to understand free market Principles and wage price points set by those free markets.

[eatthebanksters]

Folks, no one is as bent as MDB appears...he can't be real in his opines....it's all a big piss at the liberal estatblishment.  If he is for real then he must be in a different country and a relic of some communist regime where he got extra bacon as a kid for blowing the local party boss.

[Badabing]

Bullish for Drakes I like funny bones

[slaughterer]

This is a fake MDB.  The name has a "_" after it.

[ParkAveFlasher]

Fractal MDB, bitches!

[GetZeeGold]

What a bitch!

[Sauk Leader]

Good eye, it looks like Max Fisher stole MDB's identity.

[resurger]

lol is he still alive?

[Nobody For President]

Agreed. The real MDB is much more subtle, and reels in the suckers by the bushel - one of the best trolls around and up to ZH standards. This fake is using a sledgehammer, instead of the real MDB's tackhammer. Or maybe it's the same dude trying different styles, in which case - go back to the tackhammer, much more entertaining.

[fuu]

Both versions registered 1 year 19 weeks ago. The one with _ in front is only 19 weeks old.

[A Nanny Moose]

Rome burns. ZH is infested by MDB groupies. You can't make this shit up.

[EscapeKey]

0/10.

A good troll does not resort to name-calling this early in the debate.

[bunnyswanson]

What the fuck are you talking about?  CEO compensation includes perks that by far make up for this $1.00 salary.  The multimillionaires now running monopolized industry have drained profits and cornered their markets during mergers and acquisitions (Bain Capital). 

Highest paid CEOs:

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/halahtouryalai/files/2012/06/top-and-bottom.gif

[Joe Davola]

The election's over, give up Bain already.  Read Tyler's article from a few days ago which adressed the multimillionaire D's who run the M&A firm involved in Hostess - as well as the looking 'out for the little guy' Dick Gephart's skim from the deals.

[Metalredneck]

When can I make a Hitler reference?  Before I post cat memes?

[MeelionDollerBogus]

You have to choose? What kind of troll are you?

Hitler Kitten Speaketh

[akak]

You're really off your game today, MDB (not that I appreciate your usual shtick anyway).

[Let The Wurlitz...]

Trickle down economics doesnt work well for lazy people but it is much better than "trickle down socialism".

[AldousHuxley]

trickle down economics is socialism you idiot.

socialism for the bankers as they get the first dips into fed money.

first dips = inside trading

[ZerOhead]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics

Trickle down economics provides a veritable golden shower to the wage slaves below...

[goldfish1]

"Today's wage slave is not much different than yesterday's. They are woken to go to work, they punch in and raise capital for their boss, they punch out and spend the little bit of money they earned, go to sleep to rest for the next day, and repeat until they retire or die. They are bound to their bosses by credit card debt, mortgages, and family welfare. In today's tough economic times, wage slaves are bound more than ever. They know if they quit or demand more from their employers they will be easily replaced."

[MeelionDollerBogus]

The trick is to have no debt, no mortgage & to plow all your extra money into safe investments like gold, silver & land you control completely - and emigrate if you must to do all this - all before having children. Then you can quit when you want, learn how to boss your bosses in a polite but business-sensible manner & keep established, safe & prepped up for disasters. Stored food, water, silver, gold, medicine & tools - that's how you do it.

[Marc45]

There's a reason that rich people make the rules.  They work much smarter that your "average joe" so they don't have to be at the mercy of a boss.

Why are you trying to penalize people who are smarter, more successful and make a lot more money than you?  Insecurity?

[MeelionDollerBogus]

Unions need to organize bigger strikes & be willing to retrain workers so they can outright quit certain industries to punish them permanently for underpayment - and not retrain their replacements EVER.

[bunnyswanson]

As typical these days, there is far more to the story. 

"...Driscoll, the CEO, departed suddenly and without explanation in March. It may have been that the Teamsters no longer felt it could trust him. 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.

When the Teamsters saw the court motion, Ken Hall, the union’s secretary-treasurer and No. 2 man, was irate. So much, he thought, for what he described as Driscoll’s “happy talk” about “shared sacrifice.”

The board replaced Driscoll with Greg Rayburn, a restructuring expert Hostess had hired as a consultant only nine days earlier. Rayburn was a serial turnaround specialist who had worked with such high-profile distressed businesses as WorldCom, Muzak Holdings, and New York City Off-Track Betting. He became Hostess’s sixth CEO in a decade. Within a month of taking over, Rayburn had to preside over a public-relations fiasco. Some unsecured creditors had informed the court that last summer — as the company was crumbling — four top Hostess executives received raises of up to 80%. (Driscoll had also received a pay raise back then.) The Teamsters saw this as more management shenanigans. “Looting” is how Hall described it in TV interviews.

Rayburn announced that the pay of the four top executives would go down to $1 for the year, but that their full salaries would be reinstated no later than Jan. 1. Hostess pays Rayburn $125,000 a month, according to court filings.

Here’s the union’s take:

Over the past eight years since the first Hostess bankruptcy, BCTGM members have watched as money from previous concessions that was supposed to go towards capital investment, product development, plant improvement and new equipment, was squandered in executive bonuses, payouts to Wall Street investors and payments to high-priced attorneys and consultants.

BCTGM members are well aware that as the company was preparing to file for bankruptcy earlier this year, the then CEO of Hostess was awarded a 300 percent raise (from approximately $750,000 to $2,550,000) and at least nine other top executives of the company received massive pay raises. One such executive received a pay increase from $500,000 to $900,000 and another received one taking his salary from $375,000 to $656,256.

Over the past 15 months, Hostess workers have seen the company unilaterally end contractually-obligated payments to their pension plan. Despite saving more than $160 million with this action, the company continues to fall deeper and deeper into debt. A mountain of debt and gross mismanagement by a string of failed CEO’s with no true experience in the wholesale baking business have left this company unable to compete or survive.

http://americablog.com/2012/11/hostess-twinkie-ceo-salary.html

[dark pools of soros]

the crowd here doesn't care about worker contracts.. they only like ZH since they hate bigger snakes then themselves

[camaro68ss]

go to china you F***ing commie. Stop poisoning my country with the filth that’s spewing out of your mouth.

[economics9698]

Sometimes MDB is not funny.  I think the 30% was a attempt at humor.

[massbytes]

Hostess revenue was around 2.5-2.7 billion.  I doubt what you are saying is true.  But don't let that stop you from a good story.

[q99x2]

Wait until Obamacare comes in full tilt and the workers get sent back to the stone age via layoffs. The Obamaphones are going to be ringing off the hook then. This ain't nothing. Although it shouldn't be too bad if you are in one of the states that opted out.

[eatthebanksters]

For the unions!   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OagFIQMs1tw

[Joe Davola]

Even though there is the opt out clause in that Obamination, watch out for that Supremacy Clause lurking just around the corner.

[Navymugsy]

Fake trolls? This is inexcuseable!

[Ctrl_P]

Running with the theme today...

This is inconceivable!

There, fixed.

[eatthebanksters]

MDB...love the humor!

[Bansters-in-my-...]

Pssstt...MDB...

Just for the record ,you,are not normal.

[slaughterer]

Hostess goes Galt.  

[eatthebanksters]

Where is John Galt?

[Magnix]

I thought it was 18.5K employees?

[economics9698]

It's Herbert Hoover's fault.

[CrockettAlmanac.com]

Hoover's role as founder of a revolutionary program of government planning to combat depression has been unjustly neglected by historians. Franklin D. Roosevelt, in large part, merely elaborated the policies laid down by his predecessor. To scoff at Hoover's tragic failure to cure the depression as a typical example of laissez-faire is drastically to misread the historical record. The Hoover rout must be set down as a failure of government planning and not of the free market. To portray the interventionist efforts of the Hoover administration to cure the depression, we may quote Hoover's own summary of his program, during his presidential campaign in the fall of 1932:

"We might have done nothing. That would have been utter ruin. Instead we met the situation with proposals to private business and to Congress of the most gigantic program of economic defense and counterattack ever evolved in the history of the Republic. We put it into action.... No government in Washington has hitherto considered that it held so broad a responsibility for leadership in such times.... For the first time in the history of depression, dividends, profits, and the cost of living, have been reduced before wages have suffered.... They were maintained until the cost of living had decreased and the profits had practically vanished. They are now the highest real wages in the world."

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard184.html

[KCMLO]

Well we don't call it the Roosevelt Dam now do we?

[A Nanny Moose]

Ding ding ding!!! We have a winner, boys, girls, and MDB.

[Stoploss]

Let's hope the union workers are savers.. LOL..

So, how is the " you don't need the employers, they need you!!", union theme working out?

[Manthong]

 There is an upside in this story.

15,000 or so monthly union extortion dues payments down the tubes.

It’s just a shame that the union bosses are all still collecting their outrageous pay and benefits.

[Tortfeasor]

So much to be thankful for.

[TruthHunter]

Let's hope the union workers are savers.. LOL..

Expect a 20k spike in foreclosures in about 3 months.

[vinayjha]

Its obama fault.

http://www.freefdawatchlist.com

[Skateboarder]

Bonuses for management, pink slips for the workers. Nothing new here?

Horrible Thanksgiving for those poor folks though. :(

[camaro68ss]

truck drivers making 125k arnt poor folks.

(no that there fired they will be)

 glad the union really stuck to there guns on this one. really showed there for there people. hahaha

hostess is a privet company. they can pay managment all the profits they want.

[ITrustMyGut]

were you born this self destructively stupid.. or did you transform a modestly intelligent brain into mush force feeding yourself limpdick and beck?

[camaro68ss]

you must be a union rep.

get back to work knuckle dragger.

[CrockettAlmanac.com]

Astroturf is union "work."

[ITrustMyGut]

hers a clue...  YOU are labor... and have not a chance in hell to ever be anything but labor...

[A Nanny Moose]

Will you be adding value to the conversation anytime soon?

[akak]

The precision and elocution of your exquisitely grammatical erudition simply overwhelms me.

[CrockettAlmanac.com]

Indubitably.

[Dugald]

Coo'errr Wot e say?

[Grifter]

+Hobson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTeDxlknnFo

[A Nanny Moose]

Can I get a side of fries with that?

[nodhannum]

So pray tell, why doesn't the union buy the company and live in nirvana forever after?

[RacerX]

Does the severance package include a sampler pack of twinkies, etc?

[Big Corked Boots]

All U can eat!

[DeadFred]

Caution: the LD50 for Twinkies is 3.72/ day.

[EscapeKey]

Strongly bullish - that's 15,000 people who will sit at home and eat twinkies all day. Oh wait a mi

[fuu]

They will now qualify for 99 weeks funemployment, SNAP, WIC, O-Phones, and other assorted services. Gotta be bullish.

[ParkAveFlasher]

This is what happens when you warehouse Twinkies alongside DTCC records.

[HD]

My twinkie is soggy...

[ptoemmes]

Yeah, don't eat any Twinkies (or any other Hostess shit) dated on or after, say, Nov 14 2012 cause, you know, there might just be some Hostess shit in them.

[strangeglove]

Fried Twinky FIRE!

[Richard Head]

Blame it all on "The Big Hurt", Frank Hurt that is!

[piceridu]

We wonder if this surge in initial claims reported next week will also be attributed to Sandy?

No it will be attributed to her really naughty sister Hoho

[Dr. Engali]

Have a happy fucking Thanksgiving. Forget about the turkey feel free to gab some reject twinkies on the way out the door.

[Cognitive Dissonance]

".....reject twinkies..."

Is that an oxymoron?  :)

[Dr. Engali]

You caught that huh? ;->

[yogibear]

It's Bush's fault! (sarc)

[lizzy36]

Horrible way for 15,000 to start thanksgiving.

[Cognitive Dissonance]

Good news. It wasn't just before Christmas.

/sarc

[gmrpeabody]

I was asked to fire a young assistant once, after close on Christmas Eve. I refused and was subsequently fired along with that young assistant. I had a good Christmas anyway!

[RopeADope]

We always made it a policy to do layoffs well after the holidays. Nothing worse to someone that telling them their income has stopped right after they spent their annual savings on worthless consumer junk. But then we also paid employees out of our own personal savings when times were rough if we knew orders would pick up shortly.

Makes you wonder where the U.S.A went and moved to...

[Trimmed Hedge]

Nothing wrong with November lay-offs

At least that way, the affected won't buy a ton of Christmas crap

Right before (Dec) or right after (Jan) is kinda douchey...

[Trimmed Hedge]

Jewish boss?

[gmrpeabody]

He was Greek, actually. He loved himself very much.

[ElvisDog]

Hostess liquidation scorecard:

Winners: Hostess senior management, Union reps

Losers: Worker bees.

[Pants McPants]

So...a parasite cannot live after the Host(ess) dies?

[FuzzyDunlop21]

I like this

[Buzz Fuzzel]

Except when the central planners execute a "managed bankruptcy" and attach the parasite to the tax payers.  In that case the parasite survives till the entire system colapses which is likely soon.

[WillyGroper]

There's a shred of hope.

[blunderdog]

I realize those folks don't have jobs anymore, but isn't killing them going a bit far?

[Sofa King]

No Shit...but at least we can call Myanmar, Burma again.

[CrockettAlmanac.com]

"Burma!"

"Why'd you say 'Burma?'"

"I panicked."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k1ccguXiws

[papaswamp]

Recipes to be purchased by China....good bye jobs.

[I Am Not a Copp...]

Just when I thought I could get a job filling twinkies...

[akak]

Too late --- Bawney Fwank and several thousand Catholic priests already claimed all available such positions years ago.

[yogibear]

The union taught Hostess a lesson. To unlatch a union you go out of business.

Public workers are the last refuge for the radical unions.

[Zap Powerz]

I no longer believe anything the government tells me.

[monopoly]

A truck driver making $125,000.00 delivering crap that kills. You are joking are you not?

[WillyGroper]

I'll believe they made $125K when I read their contract book. Union wages are normally scaled to the cost of living in the geographic location. East & west cost make much more than the MW. There's no way in west hell that a local delivery person, teamsters or not, made that kind of money. 

[the not so migh...]

Happy Holiday fuckers

[Seasmoke]

That gives new meaning to Thanksgiving stuffing in your Twinkies

[Seasmoke]

Cant ever think of a better day to fire union thugs than today !!!........EXCEPT YESTERDAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Northeaster]

Citi just announced 31 branch closings. Unfortunately the TRILLIONS Citi got through the front and backdoor will never be recouped. However, much like status quo, they pay well for legal fraud and corruption:

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000071

[Debeachesand Je...]

Good bye Twinkies,Michelle will be so happy this Thanksgiving knowing that another unhealthy snack has bit the dust.

Mayor Bloomburg must be happy as shit too.

[resurger]

WHY DONT HE FIRE HIMSELF FIRST!

Cocksucker!

Sorry for caps, but this is Bullshit!

[FatFingered]

Op, Op, Op, Oppa Bammacare!

[Lost Wages]

The only way this could be more painful is if Hostess made something in the shape of a turkey.

[HardlyZero]

Or a delicious pie in the shape of Hurricane Sandy...call it the "Sandy" pie or cake.

[Buzz Fuzzel]

Nothing to worry about.  The Dear Leader and his gang of central planners will step it to "save" these jobs by violating property law, securities law and the conscience of any fair minded judges who might be remaining in our bankruptcy court system.

[GOSPLAN HERO]

Hostess will soon become the first USSA state owned bakery.

FORWARD, comrades!

[rogerthat]

Now that 5,000+ are out of a job from Frank Hurt's union, I wonder if he will be taking a pay cut anytime soon?

2011 PRESIDENT   $262,654.00

http://www.unionfacts.com/employee/Bakery%2C_Confectionary%2C_Tobacco_Wo...

Seems someone was a little paycheck envy......

[Buzz Fuzzel]

Why are workers entitled to a job when the employer is not entitled to customers?  If the owner can change suppliers to his business process when somone offers him a better item at a better price why is he not allowed to change his workers?  Labor unions have long since outlived their productive usefulness.  They are now more destructive to their own employment prospects than the greediest of business owners.

[kralizec]

Sandy is one angry bitch, must have been on Obama's payroll, all is going according to plan.

[Count de Money]

Apparently, Hostess was caught in the middle of an inter-union pissing contest. WSJ explains:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732435200457813091215051261...

Money quote:

"As the bakers rightly saw it, they were being asked once more to prop up Teamster jobs that would likely guarantee that any Hostess resurrection would be short-lived."

[quasimodo]

As the "bakers" saw it.

LMAO right there. Bakers? Does me popping a hot pocket in the microwave make ME a baker? Pushing some fucking buttons after the nasty ass shit is ready for the oven on the automated line makes them bakers?

Good grief

[CoolBeans]

TEAM TWINKIE!

I am very sorry that the worker-pawns and their families will have to start the Thanksgiving holiday sans jobs.  Unions...once served an honorable purpose...now, not so much.

[Irene]

So, where's Obama's famous Labor Relations Board when you need them, eh?

[earleflorida]

were sorry:

we're sorry we can't help you with a mortgage modification,

we're sorry we can't lower your utility bills,... electric, heating, water, and sewage,

we're sorry we can't lower your property taxes, state, and municipal,

we're sorry that our/your payroll taxes will be increasing... so think of the firing as a favor?,

we're sorry that your next employer will be unemployment or social security,

but, if you relocate south of the border, or even north... i'm sure there will be plenty of low rising dough to be made at half your extinct current wage benefit package!,

we're sorry

*[ insert other thought here,...     ]

the hostess management and mr. twinkie thankyou

sorry!? 

[jmcadg]

I actually gave MDB a greenie! Am I fuckin' insane???

[Schmuck Raker]

There is nothing worse than a Sandy Twinkie.

Happy Turkey Day Y'all

[nodhannum]

Yes there is something worse...a sandy muff!

[Navymugsy]

Your twinkie's stuffing isn't as strong after 40...

[akak]

That's OK --- neither is the Ding-Dong.

[youngman]

One they had a declining market share....two their costs were going up....so to keep in business they had to make a choice....labor cost were to high....can´t cut the ingredients cost...can´t cut fixed costs...real estate...energy..taxes...labor had to move...they didn´t...they thought the new owners would take their contracts....NOT....so the equipment gets sold...and so does the real estate....probably to Bimbo and it gets moved to Mexico I bet....where it will be back in production in no time...see ya Unions...and no I do not shed a tear for stupid people...making a TWINKIE does not require a $100,000 year job.....now they know

[edifice]

And Bimbo will produce a better product, for 10% the cost.

[JSD]

Union Member:  We thank you for your membership and continued support throughout the negotiations. We realize that this will be a trying holiday season for you for you and your family.  Rest assured we will be thinking of you.  

Please make your donation payable to The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.  Thanks for your continued loyalty.

P.S.

You NEVER go FULL RETARD.

[edifice]

Memo
From: Hostess CEO
To: Ex-Hostess Employees

Suck it in and cope, buddy... Suck it in and cope...

[quasimodo]

Terminated JIT for Thanksgiving.

Gobble....Gobble

[Translator]

HOSTESS is Bush's fault, since it happened on Obama's watch............

[Never One Roach]

Hostess is not GM.

[orangegeek]

Perhaps one of the most interesting words
in the English language today, is the word FUCK.

Out of all of the English words which begin with the letter F, FUCK is the only word referred to as the "F" word, it's the one magical word.
FUCK as most words in the english language, is derived from German, the word "fricken[?]", which means to strike.

In English, FUCK falls into many grammatical categories.

As a transitive verb, for instance.
John FUCK-ed Shirley.
As an intransitive verb, Shirley FUCKS.
It's meaning's not always sexual;
it can be used as an adjective, such as
John's doing all the FUCK-ing work.
As part of an adverb,
Shirley talks too FUCK-ing much.
As an adverb enhancing an adjective,
Shirley is FUCK-ing beautiful.
As a noun, I don't give a FUCK.
As part of a word abso-FUCKING-lutely,
or in-FUCKING-credible.
And, as almost every word in the sentence,
FUCK the FUCK-ing FUCK-ers.

As you must realize,
there aren't too many words
with the versatility of FUCK.
As in these examples describing situations
such as fraud,
I got FUCK-ed at the used car lot.
Dismay, Aw FUCK it.
Trouble, I guess I'm really FUCK-ed now.
Agression, Don't FUCK with me buddy.
Difficulty, I don't understand this FUCK-ing question.
Inquiry, Who the FUCK was that?
Dissatisfaction, I don't like what the FUCK is going on here.
Incompetence, He's a FUCK-off.
Dismissal, Why don't you go outside and play hide-and-go-FUCK yourself?

I'm sure you can think of many more examples.
With all these multi purpose applications,
how can anyone be offended when you use the word?
We say, use this unique, flexible word more often in your daily speech.
It will identify the quality of your character immediately.
Say it loudly, and proudly!
FUCK you!

[giggler123]

It's because of a Twinkie, 35feet long, weighing approximately 600lbs.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzaQjS1JstY