No more Twinkies.. please say it ain't so

[Slaughter]

There are reports of Hostess and the union agreeing in court to private mediation. Even if they can agree, it doesn't necessarily mean that Hostess can still survive in the long run.

[juneau]

I got to try my first twinkie yesterday while i was in Manchester. Costs £1.30 for the pleasure! However it was a chocolate flavoured filling variant as all of the standard kind have sold out in a lot of places already, and i tried about 4 stores.

After my hunt yesterday i noticed that American 'candy' is becoming huge business over here, but they better be careful as the shocking prices (box of 10 twinkies cost £15!) will kill it off sooner rather than later.

Good news about twinkies surviving. Even thought i didn't find my first venture to be that tasty, it would be just wrong to lose such an American icon.

[goldenfooler]

never heard of the choc variant.

[juneau]

never heard of the choc variant.

That be them.

[Slaughter]

The negotiations failed, and the liquidation/sale of Hostess and brands will begin. The striking union members have caused the rest of Hostess' work force to also lose their livelihoods. Way to go folks.

[Apache Warrior]

Management gave themselves a 300% pay increase while cutting employees pay.

Even as it blamed unions for the bankruptcy and the 18,500 job losses that will ensue, Hostess already gave its executives pay raises earlier this year. The salary of the company’s chief executive tripled from $750,000 to roughly $2.5 million, and at least nine other executives received pay raises ranging from $90,000 to $400,000. Those raises came just months after Hostess originally filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.

Hostess is hardly the only company that has compensated its executives during bankruptcy or times of financial instability. Failed financial firm MF Global gave CEO Jon Corzine an $8 million pay package after it filed for bankruptcy, and Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit received a $6.7 million pay package when he resigned, despite Citi’s 88 percent profit loss during his final quarter. And Hostess isn’t alone in giving executives massive raises while asking for concessions from union workers either: construction giant Caterpillar rewarded its CEO with a 60 percent pay raise, paying him $17 million, even as it forced a pay and pension freeze on its union workforce.

Kinda puts things in a different perspective. No wonder the unions refused to cooperate.
Apache

[Dead...Again]

Well, I have to say that is some major BS. If the company wants the rank and file workers to take a hit, the executives should as well...

[K PhaNTOM]

Management gave themselves a 300% pay increase while cutting employees pay.

Kinda puts things in a different perspective. No wonder the unions refused to cooperate.
Apache

If people went on strike every time management got a raise, nobody would be working. I'm sure those assholes don't deserve those raises, but that's how bureaucracy works.

[Slaughter]

Top management (CEO/COO/CFO) raises are typically controlled by the board of directors (and yes; the CEO is often on the board). This is done so those who are leading the company through processes like restructuring/bankruptcy don't bail out in the middle of it, which would cause costly delays as suitable replacements are sought and even further loss in share/company value. And share value affects lots of people (individual, group and fund investors).

I don't necessarily agree with these raises as it certainly doesn't paint a good picture. Though, while the dollar figures seem high; when you compare these salaries to fees that top actors get paid per movie (which can run $10-25 million) or what top basketball or football players (or even some rappers) make per year, in many cases it is much less. And those people aren't ultimately responsible for tens of thousands of employees.