Tigers X - Number one Source to Talk Auburn Tigers Sports
The Library => Haley Center Basement => Topic started by: AUChizad on November 16, 2012, 09:10:49 AM
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-hostess-brands-seeks-court-permission-to-liquidate-20121116,0,3175964.story
No more Twinkies? Hostess plans to shut down
Hostess CEO says strike was fatal blow bankrupt company and that it is too late to fix it. Nearly 600 could lose jobs in Schiller Park and Hodgkins bakeries.
Indiana Hostess plants could shut down after workers strike.
7:36 a.m. CST, November 16, 2012
Hostess Brands Inc., the bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, said it had sought court permission to go out of business after failing to get wage and benefit cuts from thousands of its striking bakery workers.
Hostess said a national strike by members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union that began last week had crippled its ability to produce and deliver products at several facilities.
Hostess Chief Executive Gregory Rayburn said in an interview on CNBC Friday morning that Hostess could not avoid liquidation, even if members of its bakers' union ended their strike immediately and went back to work.
The liquidation of the company will mean that most of its 18,500 employees will lose their jobs, Hostess said on Friday.
In the Chicago area, Hostess employs about 300 workers making CupCakes, HoHos and Honey Buns in Schiller Park. Hostess also has a bakery in Hodgkins, where 325 workers make Beefsteak, Butternut, Home Pride, Nature’s Pride and Wonder breads.
The 82-year-old company said it took the decision to shut down after determining that not enough employees had returned to work by a deadline on Thursday.
The company, which filed for bankruptcy in January for the second time since 2004, said it had filed a motion with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, New York, for permission to shut down and sell assets.
Irving, Texas-based Hostess has 565 distribution centers and 570 bakery outlet stores, as well as the 33 bakeries. Its brands include Wonder, Nature's Pride, Dolly Madison, Drake's, Butternut, Home Pride and Merita, but it is probably best known for Twinkies -- basically a cream-filled sponge cake.
"We deeply regret the necessity of today's decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike," Chief Executive Gregory Rayburn said in a statement.
"Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders," Rayburn added.
Union President Frank Hurt said on Thursday that the crisis at the company was the "result of nearly a decade of financial and operational mismanagement" and that management was trying to make union workers the scapegoats for a plan by Wall Street investors to sell Hostess.
Hostess said its debtor-in-possession lenders had agreed to allow the it to continue to have access to $75 million to fund the wind-down process.
"There's no way to soften the fact that this will hurt every Hostess Brands employee. All Hostess Brands employees will eventually lose their jobs - some sooner than others," Rayburn said in a letter to employees.
The company has canceled all orders in process with its suppliers and said any product in transit would be returned to the shipper.
In its filing with the court, the company said it would have incurred a loss of between $7.5 million and $9.5 million from Nov. 9 to Nov. 19 in lost sales and increased costs.
"These losses and other factors, including increased vendor payment terms contraction, have resulted in a significant weakening of the debtors' cash position and, if continued, would soon result in the debtors completely running out of cash," it said.
Hostess had already reached agreement on pay and benefit cuts with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, its largest union.
The case is In re: Hostess Brands Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-22052.
Sad news. Even more than Twinkies, I'm gonna miss
(http://misfit120.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/twinkie-ding-dongs.jpg)
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WELCOME TO OBAMA'S AMERICA!!!
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OBAMA hates the yellow cake!
Fuck could this year get any worse?
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WELCOME TO OBAMA'S AMERICA!!!
I would say so. Seeing his recent siding with all things union. Please tell me you don't side with these corrupt unions that caused this.
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WELCOME TO OBAMA'S AMERICA!!!
I assume you're being sarcastic but would you prefer yet another bail-out? What's another $10 million dollars amongst friends if it "saves" a few more Democrat, Union voters' jobs. This is what the unions have wrought.
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Chad loves the dong
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Chad loves the dong
"Let them eat cake."
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"Let them eat cake."
You there. Cake or death?
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"Let them eat cake."
Behead this man!
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Behead this man!
"I recognize no obligations toward men except one: to respect their freedom and to take no part in a slave society. To my country, I wish to give the ten years which I will spend in jail if my country exists no longer. I will spend them in memory and in gratitude for what my country has been. It will be my act of loyalty, my refusal to live or work in what has taken its place."
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"I recognize no obligations toward men except one: to respect their freedom and to take no part in a slave society. To my country, I wish to give the ten years which I will spend in jail if my country exists no longer. I will spend them in memory and in gratitude for what my country has been. It will be my act of loyalty, my refusal to live or work in what has taken its place."
Only on the X can we go from Hostess Ding Dongs to this in 10 posts or less.
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"I recognize no obligations toward men except one: to respect their freedom and to take no part in a slave society. To my country, I wish to give the ten years which I will spend in jail if my country exists no longer. I will spend them in memory and in gratitude for what my country has been. It will be my act of loyalty, my refusal to live or work in what has taken its place."
"The only good a man can do to others and the only statement to their proper relationship is-Hands off!"
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Only on the X can we go from Hostess Ding Dongs to this in 10 posts or less.
"I have not yet begun to fight!", friend.
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"The only good a man can do to others and the only statement to their proper relationship is-Hands off!"
I'm betting that you and I have the same books in our libraries.
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I'm betting that you and I have the same books in our libraries.
We have many leather bound books!
I have mostly history, political and several of the classics (Poe, Dickinson, Chaucer, Shakesphere..etc..etc). I am about to start the complete works of Poe.....again.
Weird but two of my favorite books in my collection were from my Eng Lit I and II classes. Beowulf, Sir Gawain, oh how I loved that class. I do have the one offs like the Hunger Games trilogy.
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"Let them eat cake."
What's with the knife?
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What's with the knife?
Yo, she called you retarded.
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And if you don't love Eliza Dushku then GTFO!
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Yo, she called you retarded.
I think I filled the cup.
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I think I filled the cup.
What the fuck is the Internet?
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i'm not a business major...but i don't see how a company such as pepsi co. or nestle doesn't step in to buy that brand. i can't imagine an american icon such as the twinkie falls off the face of the earth.
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What the fuck is the Internet?
The Internet is a communication tool used the world over where people can come together to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another.
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The Internet is a communication tool used the world over where people can come together to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another.
This isn't fair. We came to Hollywood, I fell in love. Fuckin', we got shot at, we stole a monkey, and I got punched in the motherfucking nuts by a guy named Cock-Knocker.
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Tallahassee weeps
(http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxnj7rN3WP1qfo293.jpg)
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This isn't fair. We came to Hollywood, I fell in love. Fuckin', we got shot at, we stole a monkey, and I got punched in the motherfucking nuts by a guy named Cock-Knocker.
Word, bitch, Phantoms like a motherfucker.
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i'm not a business major...but i don't see how a company such as pepsi co. or nestle doesn't step in to buy that brand. i can't imagine an american icon such as the twinkie falls off the face of the earth.
Hostess is liquidating all of their assets, which includes the recipes for all of their products. That shit is probably already sold. Like you said, way too iconic for another company to pass up.
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States finally legalizing marijuana and no Twinkies, that’s shit, is fucked up.
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Tallahassee weeps
(http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxnj7rN3WP1qfo293.jpg)
Oh, this Twinkie thing, it ain't over yet.
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It's apparently Mitt Romney's fault, not W's.
OCCUPY HOSTESS BRANDS!
Union: 'Bain-style' killing of Twinkie
By: Kevin Cirilli
November 16, 2012 01:18 PM EST
The Bain attack is back.
This time it’s being used against Hostess Brands, the Twinkies and Wonder Bread maker that announced Friday it was closing. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka drew the comparison in a public statement Friday.
“What’s happening with Hostess Brands is a microcosm of what’s wrong with America, as Bain-style Wall Street vultures make themselves rich by making America poor,†Trumka said in a public statement. “Crony capitalism and consistently poor management drove Hostess into the ground, but its workers are paying the price.â€
Earlier Friday, Hostess Brands announced that it would be closing, which the company said was precipitated by a workers’ strike.
Trumka’s comparing Hostess to Bain comes after an election in which former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney was criticized for co-founding Bain Capital.
The union leader took the workers’ the side, saying Hostess’ leaders and policies were “wrecking America.â€
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I think rapacious, inflexible unions and a healthier American lifestyle is more responsible for Twinkies' woes but that's just the view from Realsville.
Somebody might want to migrate this one over to teh SGA...
More from Politico here:
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=9C2246B2-782A-4BFF-8345-1D6AC24CCC46
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In Mexico, you know what they call Twinkies? "Los submarinos."
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It's apparently Mitt Romney's fault, not W's.
OCCUPY HOSTESS BRANDS!
I think rapacious, inflexible unions and a healthier American lifestyle is more responsible for Twinkies' woes but that's just the view from Realsville.
Somebody might want to migrate this one over to teh SGA...
More from Politico here:
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=9C2246B2-782A-4BFF-8345-1D6AC24CCC46
It's actually documented fact the labor costs were what did it more than anything. And they were striking for even more. The CEO saw the writing on the wall. It was a no win situation.
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Where are you, you spongy, yellow, delicious bastards?
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It's actually documented fact the labor costs were what did it more than anything. And they were striking for even more. The CEO saw the writing on the wall. It was a no win situation.
So, rapacious, inflexible unions it is then. I don't like to see anyone out of work but they did this to themselves.
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Twinkies gone? Oh well, never liked them anyway. The last time I had a Twinkie was about 20 years ago, never wanted one since.
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Sno-Balls? Sno-Balls? Sno Balls? Where's the fucking Twinkies?
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Where are you, you spongy, yellow, delicious bastards?
This, combined with the Mayan calendar leads me to believe the zombie apocalypse may indeed be upon us.
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(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/c8.0.403.403/p403x403/575098_556009764428481_372930561_n.jpg)
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Just in case anybody really cares, Hostess is now officially done. A judge ordered the two sides into mediation, but talks have failed. The judge has now approved the liquidation plan. The story below gives an interesting perspective on the situation, and some insight into the operations of the company. It looks like some of the issues with the company may have actually been created by union rules.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/investing/2012/11/19/death-twinkies-union-contract-hit/
In the death of Hostess Brands, progenitor of Twinkies, Devil Dogs and Ding Dongs and other artery-clogging, icing-adorned icons of Americana, plenty of factors get the blame.
Management didn’t cut deep enough, soon enough. Plants didn’t update. Marketing failed to innovate. The product line stayed unstintingly junky, defiantly flouting America’s reluctant reset to low-fat fare.
But the real reason Hostess had to die at this particular time? This was a union contract hit.
And that offers a disturbing glimpse into the delusional, drunk-with-power mindset of unions -- which represent barely 7% of the private work force in the U.S. -- as they embark on a second term of way-too-cozy relations with their supplicant in the White House.
President Obama, ever grateful for the millions of dollars and thousands of foot soldiers provided by union support, will continue trying to end-run Congress and make it easier for unions to sink their hooks into business.
Yet unions are in stark denial of the need for significant cutbacks in their lush contracts if their employers are to survive. This is especially true in the demise of Hostess Brands.
Hostess’s hired gun and CEO, Gregory Rayburn, the workout “cleaner†creditors had brought in to try to save the company, had said repeatedly that he would have to shut it down unless a dozen unions accepted cutbacks in pay, benefits and stupid, featherbedding union work rules.
Even the Teamsters had agreed to his plan. (And those guys “will crack you over the head,†as a union guy warned me many years ago when a strike loomed at the Detroit News and I, a lowly intern, had said I might cross any picket line.)
But the 5,600 workers in the bakers union at Hostess went on strike. The leadership of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers whispered to workers that the company was bluffing, or a white-knight buyer may emerge. Hard to know whether this was blatant deception or foolish miscalculation; I’d suspect a bit of both.
Then Rayburn, somber not swaggering, came on-air with me on “Markets Now†in the noon hour on Thursday and reiterated his threat: The bakers must return to work by 5 p.m. that day, or the company would file to liquidate on Friday. See the video here.
Rayburn even had a company press release hand-delivered to picketing workers at a dozen plants, warning them of the 5 o’clock ultimatum. He was hoping to separate the members from their kamikaze leadership.
It didn’t work. On Friday, Hostess filed in bankruptcy court to liquidate the company. With extreme prejudice. Today, Rayburn seeks court permission to start selling off pieces.
So now all 18,500 workers at Hostess Brands just lost their jobs. Way to go guys! Bake me a lie, as fast as you can.
Brace yourself for a wave of union propaganda-as-apologia. You’ll hear Obama-echoes of sniping against private equity a la Mitt-Bain Capital: “Romney-Style Economics Behind Decline of Hostess, But Workers Are Paying the Price,†says one website affiliated, predictably, with the AFL-CIO.
Those vulture capitalists must have sucked out hundreds of millions of dollars by leveraging up the company, right? (Answer: wrong. Ripplewood Holdings injected a total $150 million in three dollops as Hostess sank deeper into trouble. It lost every dollar.)
The unions will say management had given itself millions in pay raises while demanding worker cuts. (True, but the raises were barely a rounding error at a company that had lost almost half a billion bucks in two years; and Rayburn rescinded the raises anyway, making the brass work for a dollar a year apiece.)
The unions will blame the company for taking on almost $900 million in debt. (Yet that debt cost Hostess all of $45 million in interest last year, when its total losses swelled up to $340 million).
And here’s what you won't hear the unions ever talk about:
--Hostess paid out almost $100 million in health benefits for retirees last year, but over half of it covered workers who never had worked at Hostess. The Teamsters’ onerous and antiquated “multi-employer pension plan†foists the pension obligations of a bankrupt company on to the balance sheets of surviving rivals—ensuring a steady death spiral in any declining industry. A similar “MEPP†almost killed YRC, one of the largest trucking companies.
--Union rules forced Hostess to run separate truck fleets for delivering bread vs. sweets. A sweets driver, serving a 7-11 store, was forbidden from restocking shelves with breads already delivered and waiting in the back—he had to call for a bread driver to swing by and handle.
--The union restrictions on the 5,500 distribution routes at Hostess made it unprofitable to serve tiny outlets, yet Hostess was barred from using smaller, sleeker—and non-union—distributors.
--Workers were asked to take an 8% pay cut and pay 17% of their health-care costs instead of zero. Welcome to the club, guys. For this, they would have received 25% ownership of Hostess plus $100 million of Hostess debt to be paid back to the unions.
But the bakers wouldn’t budge.
In the months ahead a chop-shop or food giant may resurrect various Hostess brands, but those 36 plants are shuttered, those 18,500 jobs are gone for good. The union preferred to picket while an 85-year-old company suffocated . . . rather than risk having to face inevitable demands for similar concessions at other employers across the country.
Those demands will be forthcoming, anyway, because, as President Obama likes to say in slapping the rich with higher taxes, the math doesn’t work. The only questions are which union will be next, and whether anyone reasonable (or sane) will be listening.
Even a parasite is smart enough to know not to kill its host. In the case of unions, the presence of such preternatural intelligence isn’t yet readily apparent.
25% ownership in the company would have been a pretty good deal, IMO.