HomeHeadlinesGreedy, Selfish Union Workers Threaten To Put Hostess Brands Out Of Business

Greedy, Selfish Union Workers Threaten To Put Hostess Brands Out Of Business

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Obama Unions Threaten Hostess Twinkies18,000 jobs will be lost at the hands of greedy, selfish union workers who can never get enough of bleeding a company dry. A weekend of Obama army union strikes has left Hostess Brands Inc. is warning about plant closures and a possible liquidation of the beleaguered baking company.

Hostess, which has been dueling with various labor groups for the past 10 months as it attempts to claw its way out of bankruptcy, saw picket lines at about two-thirds of its plants this weekend, according to chief executive Gregory Rayburn. The strikes were organized by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers International Union, whose 5,680 Hostess workers account for about 30% of the company’s total workforce.

In September, the union rejected an offer from Hostess that called for deep concessions, but a judge later cleared the baking company to force the BCTGM to assume the fresh collective bargaining agreements.

The union on Friday said its strike was a protest of the “horrendous contract” that Hostess won approval to impose, which features wage cuts and limits workers’ participation in controversial pension plans.

In an interview Monday, Mr. Rayburn said he would be spending the next few hours “assessing the need to close some of the plants” and would ultimately make a decision later in the day to permanently shut down some locations if the striking doesn’t stop. He said the company’s management is still deciding which locations would be closed.

The move wouldn’t necessarily mean Twinkies and Wonder Bread would stop being available in some areas of the country just yet, he said.

“In most cases, we’ll be able to ship products into those territories from other plants,” he said, adding that members of the company’s largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, would deliver the baked goods where they needed to go.

But the future of the Teamsters’ work, against the backdrop of a strike by the Bakers, remains unclear. Over the weekend, many Teamsters workers were crossing the picket lines, according to both Mr. Rayburn and Ken Hall, the Teamsters Secretary-Treasurer. But Mr. Hall said in an interview Monday his union is still trying to garner more details about the strike and sort through the contract provisions that specify what actions various Teamster local organizations are able to take in the event of a strike by another Hostess labor group.

Mr. Hall said he is sure his members will honor the picket lines if it is determined that such a move is sanctioned under their contracts. The Teamsters represent about 7,500 of Hostess’s approximately 18,300 employees.

Hostess, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in January saying it couldn’t survive without labor cost cutting, has long warned that a strike would spell the end of the baking company.

“This is not a situation that…we can withstand for any significant amount of time,” Mr. Rayburn said.

If the strike continues, he said the company will have to forgo the reorganization proposal that was slated for initial rounds of approval later this month and instead initiate wind-down proceedings.

“I think the timeline for us to have to make that determination is very short,” he said of the decision to liquidate the company. “We’re talking days, not weeks.”

Frank Hurt, the BCTGM president, wasn’t available for comment Monday. The BCTGM’s website indicates that workers at Hostess facilities from Knoxville, Tenn., to Sacramento, Calif., are honoring picket lines.

Mr. Rayburn said that the BCTGM hasn’t made any specific demands of Hostess and that the two parties aren’t engaged in negotiations. Mr. Rayburn said the company has “zero” tolerance for revamping the terms of its new labor deal, which the Teamsters narrowly voted to accept in September. A few other, smaller unions threw their support onto the deal as well, while some smaller unions followed the BCTGM and resisted. The latter group was ultimately forced into the contracts by a judge’s ruling.

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