Posted on 04/27/2013 2:25:51 PM PDT by mdittmar
Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) issued a statement today, responding to the sale of the iconic Twinkies brand.
In response to Metropoulos & Co. CEO C. Dean Metropoulos' statement to The Wall Street Journal that the company will not hire union workers when reopening four former Hostess Brands bakeries, BCTGM International President David B. Durkee issued the following statement on behalf of all BCTGM members:
The BCTGM is pleased to see that Hostess Brands LLC, the newly formed snack cake company created by Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co, has announced that it will be reopening four Hostess bakeries to produce the iconic Hostess cake brands. Those four successful cake plants were represented by the BCTGM for many years under former Hostess ownership.
However, we are extremely disappointed to see negative statements from company executives about the union status of its future employees. Ideally, we would like to see as many of our members hired as possible. We believe their combination of experience, dedication and know-how will give the new owners the chance to get high quality snack cakes back in the marketplace.
Federal labor law governing the hiring process and the obligations for the employer and the rights of the future employees in this situation is quite definitive. We expect that the new owners will respect the statutory rights of all workers during the hiring, startup and future of this new company.
The BCTGM remains focused on ensuring that the new Hostess Brands ownership understands that the snack cakes at the center of this new company are inextricably linked to the hands that make them—and have made them for generations. We know that our workers have a critical role to play in protecting and enhancing some of America’s most valuable consumer brands. We all want the same outcome: that the brands should prosper and endure. This is what the next stage of this saga is all about—implementing a new ownership and manufacturing structure worthy of the brands themselves and America’s manufacturing prowess.
Our members provide immense value to the new ownership with decades of experience, expertise and training. Not only have our members produced these quality products for consumers for generations, they know these bakeries inside and out. Our members are eager and willing to return to these snack plants and help usher in a new period of prosperity for Hostess snack cakes.
It is our sincere hope that the new owners will fully recognize the tremendous value of hiring back our members. If, however, they do not want us as part of the future of this company, we will continue to fight for our membership through other avenues.
I’ve never even liked Twinkies. But now, I’ll have to at least try some again. Chick-Filet is starting to grow on me, after all.
Oldplayer
The news stories about this very long event ~ multiple bankruptcies and all ~ do suggest that there were some facilities that were sufficiently automated with new investment that they'd be worth something. Those would probably be the ones opening up now. There will be many fewer employees there. But there will also be some automated equipment specialists making much more than any employee ever made in that factory.
The real issue is whether or not the Twinkies will last as long as the old custom made Twinkies!
Labor unions need to go away and stay away.
One union killed the company and now they want jobs when a new owner is trying to clean up the mess...too bad.
The thing about it is Unions aren't managed by workers. Those days are long past. They are funded by nation wide memberships & managed by national offices who really could care less if Joe Worker has a job or not.
Good post!
If it hasn't already happened, escort the scumbags off the premises.
Cupboard bare for many former Hostess workers looking for jobs
“It opens up, I might go back,” he said. “I’m not for sure, because what’s to say they aren’t going to do the same thing again?” Burt plans to keep looking for a job but attended the meeting to find out what assistance is available.
The meeting was organized after several states successfully petitioned the federal Department of Labor to apply provisions of the Trade Act to jobs lost nationwide through the Hostess bankruptcy. Federal officials approved that petition Feb. 19. Lindsay Anderson, Iowa’s Trade Act coordinator, said the forms laid-off workers filled out would also serve as an application for provisions of the Workforce Investment Act.
Among the services available to the workers are job search and relocation allowances, wage subsidies up to a certain income for workers 50 and older, job retraining services, a weekly income benefit, and a health coverage tax credit.
Ummm..no ... they will be priced at what the market will bear...higher...
When Hostess folded all the other bakeries Cloverhill, Freshley's raised their prices almost immediately because of increased demand...
They even suspended production temporarily on some slower items to keep up with demand on their better selling items...
Stick to Macy’s ~ nobody anybody here knows will care! (Bwahahahahaha)
LOL!
It sounds like the union wants to make sure the new owners fail, too.
It's a good thing you're still young.
You still have time to recover from this mental illness.
that sounds like a threat of union thug violence to me, although it could simply mean lawsuits. Or, maybe they'll sic their corrupt AG Eric Holder and his corrupt Justice Department on the new owners. Yeah, there are plenty of "avenues".
Who says intransigence doesn’t pay? After driving Hostess out of business by refusing to negotiate, union bakers have been rewarded by the White House with Trade Adjustment Assistance. It’s all the foreigners’ fault.
most workers at the bread and pastry maker, famous for its Twinkies and Ho Hos snack cakes, were willing to tighten their belts until good times returned.
They included hard-line unions, such as the Teamsters, not known for making concessions.
But there was one exception: the AFL-CIO-affiliated Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers International (BCTGM).
It refused to deal, taking the entire company, including fellow workers, down with it.
Turns out the union knew exactly what it was doing.
This week, the Labor Department decided to shower Hostess workers with Trade Adjustment Assistance, a multibillion-dollar pork barrel program that was beefed up as a bone to Democrats, who were blocking passage of three free-trade treaties in Congress in 2012.
TAA is a lavish program doled out by the Labor Department for laid-off workers who’ve lost their jobs due to “global trade.”
It provides worker retraining due to the supposed evils of free trade — plus moving expenses, baby-sitting expenses and as much as two years of unemployment pay. If a worker ends up making less than his union salary afterward, Uncle Sam spots the worker for 50% of the supposed lost wages in a “free” subsidy.
What’s more, “virtually anybody can qualify,” said TAA certifying officer Elliott Kushner in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
What? Wouldn't you want to hire these "workers"?!
“That’s not the way we did it before.... you’re doing it wrong.”
When hiring, previous experience is disqualification. The Union boss is hoping to get some of his people inside to cause trouble and disrupt.
That special assistance will not provide them a 'living wage' BTW ~
A plant is opening in Columbus, GA.—no surprise, a right to work state.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/04/24/189533/twinkies-are-back-hostess-plant.html
bet the farm these unionists sabotage the product somehow.
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