Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Vulture capitalism. Just that simple. Who's next? THINK LOCAL ECONOMIES to preserve our way of life and Middle Class jobs.

Mediation was never going to work this late in the game. The companies indebtedness is too overwhelming and that was intentional. If unions want to stop this, they have to nip it in the bud. The unions have to take action against a company with increasing debt that will endanger workers careers. Hostess is the best example of Romney vulture capitalism. It doesn't matter how big they are or how hard they fall. Americans need to take notice of their 'Amerikana' slipping through their fingers with this form of vicious capitalism.

People have to ask, how did Hostess ever get here? Then they have to ask is what other companies in the USA are following the same path? People need to stop it. Vulture capitalism contracts the economy.

A quote from the lawyer below:

...received a "flood of inquiries" from potential suitors.

The Hostess products are still in demand and have a whole lot of others seeking the power of 'the brand names.' This is vulture capitalism. There is no reason why Hostess should have entered bankruptcy except it was managed to achieve that goal. Like, what? Citizens are ridiculed for declaring bankruptcy and they never have that as a goal. The management of Hostess had bankruptcy as a goal. Why are they rewarded by our laws to do so?

There is no moral content in this management style. There are huge ethical issues. The management style deceives the employees and unions as if they will avoid adverse outcomes at all costs when it was their goal from the beginning. Planning the destruction of companies for the sake of pocketing the cash, changing the paradigm of manufacturing in the USA has to be viewed as a draconian methodology allowed within our democracy. It should not be tolerated.

It is one thing for a company to face adverse problems and seek bankruptcy. An example is the airline industry. They are so customer service dense and are impacted by weather, etc., they do suffer deficit episodes that lead to exponential problems. When airline companies are impacted by circumstances outside of their control, they pay for hotel rooms, meals, rerouting passenger traffic and on top of all the respect the passengers receive; they still look elsewhere in the future. How do they not eventually file for bankruptcy? 

That is not at all the case with Hostess. There are huge ethical issues and I'll go so far as to say, legal issues as well. The motives alone are criminal.

By Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times
November 21, 2012

Twinkies maker Hostess Brands Inc. (click here) won court approval to start shutting down operations, selling its assets and laying off its 18,500 workers, after the failure of an 11th-hour mediation to try to resolve a labor dispute.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain gave Hostess the go-ahead Wednesday to sell its plants and brands after he presided over the closed-door talks Tuesday with the company and the striking Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union, which represents about 5,000 Hostess workers.
Heather Lennox, a lawyer for Hostess, said in court that the company has received a "flood of inquiries" from potential suitors.
Among the possible bidders are Nature's Own parent Flowers Foods Inc., Sun Capital Partners Inc., Sara Lee owner Grupo Bimbo, Pabst Blue Ribbon owner C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. and investment firm Hurst Capital, according to reports and analysts....