Behind the jokes about no more Twinkies is a story about 18,000 lost jobs, a Bain Capital-like buy out and union busting.
From Main Street blog:
Hostess Brands is one of the most recognizable food companies in America, having manufactured Wonder Bread and Twinkies for decades. But now the company has announced they are liquidating, and company is unfairly blaming their workers, many of them members of BCTGM and the Teamsters.
The fact is that the responsibility lies with Hostess’ management and the vulture Wall Street private equity firm behind them, and yet the workers are the ones who will suffer the consequences of this shutdown.
Here are some facts about the Hostess situation:
- Hostess is in bankruptcy for the second time since 2009.
- For the past 8 years, Hostess has been owned by Wall Street investors: so-called “restructuring experts,” managers from other non-baking food companies, and now a “liquidation specialist.”
- The Wall Street investors that own Hostess have no interest in the company
TRS responds to the Civic Committee and Ty Fahner: “Fundamentally untrue.”
From The Illinois Teacher Retirment System:
Ten minute drawing. Ty Fahner’s binder.
On November 14, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, which leads the effort to overhaul Teachers’ Retirement System and the state’s other pension systems, sent a letter to Governor Quinn that said that there is no solution to fixing the long-term financial problems facing TRS and the other systems. This is a quote from the letter: “Our latest sobering analysis has led us to conclude… that under current circumstances the pension system is unfixable.”
Despite the finality of this statement, the Civic Committee nonetheless proposed a series of changes they said would “minimize the long-term damage.”
- “Eliminate all cost-of-living increases”
- “Institute a pensionable salary cap”
Ten minute drawing. Ty Fahner’s binder.
