Ding-Dong - for whom the bell tolls>>>

[ryson]

@SSD, makes sense. So what is good Exec:Blue Collar? One could argue that it's disproportionate that fully loaded FTE is making $20 per hour with benefits pushing a broom.

 

[Trampled Underfoot]

@SSD, makes sense. So what is good Exec:Blue Collar? One could argue that it's disproportionate that fully loaded FTE is making $20 per hour with benefits pushing a broom.

It's amazing the scumbags that are allowed to post in here let alone walk around on this Earth.

 

[ChrryBlstr]

"And, apparently according to an interview of a worker who had put his own money into the retirement fund, the money was withheld from his paycheck but never deposited in his retirement as the leaders decided to divert it to the company instead. Now it's gone. So they actually stole from workers who were trying to plan for their future. How do those running the company look themselves in the mirror? They should be in jail!"

http://www.careerbliss.com/salary/hostess-brands-salaries-24142/

 

[ssd]

Good article on Hostess and the players involved:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-16/hostess-liquidation-curious-cast-characters-twinkie-tumbles

excerpt:

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the just announced Hostess liquidation, one that will be largely debated and discussed in the media, or maybe not at all, is the curious cast of characters and the peculiar history of this particular bankruptcy. Some may not be aware that the company's Chapter 11 (or colloquially known as 22) bankruptcy filing this January, which today became a Chapter 7 liquidation, was the second one in the company's recent history, with Hostess, previously Interstate Bakeries, emerging from its previous protracted multi-year bankruptcy in 2009. What is curious is that its emergence had all the drama of a anti-Mitt Romney PAC funded thriller, with a PE firm, in this case Ripplewood holdings, injecting $130 million in order to obtain equity control of Hostess as it was emerging last time. There were also more hedge funds, investment banks, strategic buyers, politicians involved in this particular story than one can shake a deep fried numismatic value Twinkie at. More importantly, however, as America has been habituated following the last season of the reality TV show known as the presidential election, if Private Equity then "bad." Only this time there is a twist: because it wasn't really PE that was the pure evil in the Obama long-term campaign, it was associating PE with Republicans, and thus: with jobs outsourcing. And here comes the Hostess twist: because Tim Collins of Ripplewood, was a prominent Democrat, a position which allowed him to get involved in the first bankruptcy process in the first place, due to his proximity with the Teamsters' long-term heartthrob Dick Gephardt (whose consulting group just happens to also be an equity owner of Hostess). In other words, the traditional republican-cum-PE scapegoating strategy here will be a tough one to pull off since the narrative collapses when considering that it was a Democrat who rescued the firm, only to see it implode in a trainwreck that has resulted in the liquidation of a legendary brand, and 18,500 layoffs.

My thoughts:

Hostess is suffering from a profitability issue. It doesn't really matter why. If they can't make payroll or pay for flour, they need to go under.
Labor costs are up, flour, sugar, raw goods are up and income is down as America looks to granola bars for breakfast rather than Ho_Ho's.

Dinosaurs once ruled the earth, too.....

 

[hedgehog]

@SSD, makes sense. So what is good Exec:Blue Collar? One could argue that it's disproportionate that fully loaded FTE is making $20 per hour with benefits pushing a broom.

:0003 those types should be making minimum wage

 

[Trampled Underfoot]

:0003 those types should be making minimum wage

How much do you think repo men should be making?

 

[Duff Miver]

I'm all for the entrepreneur who had the vision and took all the risk making a boatload off his/her idea.

The extreme disproportion of salaries between exec staff and blue collar is ridiculous.

If you have ever seen the movie, "Other Guys" with Will Ferrel - they run a nice little 5 min video at the end of the movie re: Wall Street Corruption and exec pay.

It's one thing to be the entrepreneur who put up the idea, effort and money with no guarantee. In that case, if someone makes a ton of money - good for them. They've built a business which provides jobs for others and made themselves rich.

It's quite something else for someone who is only an employee, nothing of their own at risk, to be paid 350x what another employee makes.

For the entrepreneur, there's enormous downside if he fails. For the high dollar executive, the downside for a complete fuck-up is often a golden parachute.

Let the CEO of an investment bank make a billion dollar fuck- up, he gets X million and walks out the door.

Let a janitor in the same business forget to empty an exec ashtray, he gets the boot and not one penny.

That's the unfairness that pisses off working folks.

 

[ImFeklhr]

If Hostess was a net exporter (they sold more products overseas than they imported materials) then this is a small loss for America. Otherwise domestic food purchases will just switch to another snack and there will be little to no effect on the economy.

Sucks for those 18,000 people, but that consumer spending won't disappear, just shift elsewhere. Seems like a zero sum type of thing.