Wait - Wuh?? Some Hostess Workers Feel 'Relief' at Losing Jobs ??????????

Yeah anyway the commie minded workers don't really understand the concept that sometimes you gotta make an effort to keep afloat. It doesn't help though when they see that the higher ups are making a ton so I think companies should be sensible in this regard. The truth is that if money was still worth anything people would be more willing to sacrifice knowing they could save and do something with their lives. Nowadays in big government land you can't expect to save, you can only look forward to ask for a loan and become a debt slave.

For years I gave to the local Food Pantry. Even before the government took them over, when the church just did it by itself with donations from the community. I always heard their Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets were awesome - and I donated food for them.

Last year I was on FMLA and had to go their to receive food instead of give it. They had some good food and told me I'd just missed signing up for their holiday baskets (you have to do it way ahead of time.) For over a month now, after losing my job, I've looked forward to a little happiness at receiving my first ever Thanksgiving basket. I got it. I've got a paper bag full of Acme canned beef stew and chili, spaghetti bags and two small cardboard containers of milk. The only thing remotely relevant to Thanksgiving is a can of Acme whole cranberry sauce. They gave me a card to pick up my own turkey at the store. That was nice.

The beef stew and chili - I actually vomited after eating it when I tried it before. And the other members of my house are old, ill and the amount of sodium in those cans could kill them - they are already on diuretics.

I don't qualify for food stamps, my unemployment is like $20 over the amount. I don't even qualify for heating assistance and I need OIL to survive. I e-mailed my rep at the labor department to ask about whether I needed a certificate for doing a certain type of job I was interested in. I can't get a reply from him about anything. Apparently they are not that interested in getting me back to work.

I'm just sayin', while there are a lot of moochers out there, at the same time there is a lot of suffering and being poor ain't the gravy train that some people think it is.

My neighbor on the other hand, he's collecting unemployment, doing work under the table, has an Obamaphone and just got his girlfriend pregnant. And he's living better than I am.

I would ask, for those of you who can, to buy some decent food and donate it to someone in your area that is helping the needy. My community didn't do it. Remember - at any point in time - it could be YOU looking for help.

Unions have helped destroy this country. That is obvious. All my life the people I knew who were sitting home on their asses were collecting some kind of Union pension while the rest of us toiled away. Unions are where Capitilism defeats itself. Anything that is good can turn bad when it is misused.

Well watching twinkies on a conveyor belt day in and day out must get pretty boring.

Rail Road Union memer here

Do most of you realize, I have to pay union dues or the railroad fires me.

Yes, the company itself will fire me.

Im not disagreeing that the union memers should of taken that cut to keep their jobs.

Im not disagreeing that unions have fucked a lot of things up.

Please keep in mind that I need to work like the rest and the job I fell into makes me pay dues. If I dont I get fired.

Hey Phennommennonn -

12 years ago when the I.T. departments had a 'CIO' level, the tech field was booming and great. Then came the fall.

As businesses saw computers and their support structure as a 'cost' rather than a 'revenue generator', more and more companies dumped the 'CIO' level and put I.T. departments under a business manager. Thats when the pay cuts started.

I knew two guys - both programmers at the same company making 80k in 2004. Their entire department had an across the board cut in pay of 50%, so as to not make it look like any one person was singled out.

Now, going from 80k to 40k in a week is still 40k to live off of. One ended in divorce and then lost his job due to the drama involved, then lost everything and ended up homeless.

The second guy stayed around until he found a better job, and he found a better paying job though he had to relocate from Florida to California. His marriage did not make it though.

My point? Some families get so used to a certain income and never think it will happen to them. In these two cases both lost their marriages over a 50% cut in pay. Some handle it better than others.

As for those glad Hostess closed down, all I can say is sometimes when we have had enough we just want it to end. However it ends doesn't matter anymore. This is they dying of the American spirit of upward mobility to the new downward mobility.

Until we have a POTUS and Senate which promotes business and upward mobility instead of 'Revenge', I fear this is the new normal.

Sad, isn't it.

I guess that is more comforting than surmising they were beset by a flood of conscience about making GMO-laden, ultra processed "food" that was contributing to runaway type 2 diabetes and furthering Agenda 21? Attributing it to basic human sloth and laziness as opposed to a deeper participation in a perverse, conspiratorial form of codex alimentarius is less disturbing, maybe...

By any other measure that would be called EXTORTION!

The employees in the article are DUMB. They will just find another job in an area with 11% unemployment.

Phen said "unions are extortionists."

THAT IS SO VERY ACCURATE. Best way to put it.

I SECOND THIS OPINION..and i approve this message :)

When Reality sets in, it will bite them in the butt in the end.

99 weeks of paid vacation.

Life is sweet!

That was a century ago.
In the last 100 years, unions have simply crippled capitalism, the free market, and the right to work.

They are now a criminal thugocracy, and fit perfectly with the criminal thugocracy in charge of DC.

What a bunch of dumb asses!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There were no options or time for negotiations, just shut the place and I will show you.......Yea, and I will take all my toys and go home.

I guess the 16,000 "Twinkeies" will just walk over the job tree and pick a new one......Just that easy!

What a bunch of dumb asses in this economy.

like i always say -- union workers are lazy....especially the dark color skin ones.

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... hope that is correct! ...
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This guy has it. In the last months of hostess the hired up a liquidation expert and granted pay raises to CEOs in the range of 200%-300%. A 2.5 billion dollar a year company going bankrupt doesn't act the way they were unless they were simply using the bankruptcy as a tool towards union busting. This gave them only two potential outcomes, both favoring those who have the leverage. Either the workers take the pay cuts, cuts in benefits, and removal of pension, or they go bankrupt and sell off. Either way they know they can all go from 500k-700k a year to a 2m+ a year.

Welcome to corporate America. Everything is a cost and when looked at it is no longer "How does this benefit us" it is "can we do without this?" This approach of greed will continue to promote downward mobility as the elite in-fight with who is the "most elite" while hardworking Americans lose their jobs. As if that wasn't enough they have to listen to mouth breathers who don't get it give them a hard time.

This thread... Very enlightening.

Actually, it's a bit more difficult to get on some of those programs than a lot of you would like to think. I remember when my husband got laid of we applied or some of those things. Food stamps was relatively easy, but depending on where you live a lot of times the social workers drill into you depending on your situation. They were pretty nice to us since he got laid off and got a job within a couple of weeks, but as far as unemployment goes, in the state we were living in at the time, in order to get unemployment you had to do job interviews, like 4 a week or something like that. By the time he would have qualified he was lucky enough to get another job anyway so it wasn't needed. Even if it was a lower paying job, it was still a job. Section 8 is incredibly difficult to get, it takes years, and you have to have a pretty low income during those years and if you have a new job or pay increase you're supposed to report all those things within 10 days. I lived on section 8, and food stamps growing up, because my mom was a single parent. She actually had a decent job, but even though she worked all the time and poor ..I still wish I'd have gotten more time with her, but she worked non-stop just for us to survive. If it wasn't for food stamps and section 8 we'd have starved and been in a shelter. These people probably worked their butts off for some time for crappy pay, and now they get a break. I get it, so I'm not going to judge them if they did qualify for government stuff.

When you dont qualify for unemloyment, you qualify for the emergency benefit when you prove you cant pay the rent and feed yourself, thats here anyways.

Thing i dont understand is how much gets provided to you when unemployed, its hard to make a living working a real job, and these people Get much of what you have to work for for free.

I guess if you didnt help them they would have to turn to crime or become sick spread diseases amongst the community from malnutrition

Thank you AC 15680976. 'Downward mobility' seems to be the new normal. What do you think?

why don't you get off your ass and get a job Phenom.

Wow...I was devastated when I got laid off. I really wasn't expecting that reaction, maybe I'm naive I don't know.

Hope they will find better jobs.

Badly run companies don't deserve to exist.
They shouldn't expect employees to work for them for peanuts whilst they pocket the profits.
Unions are there to protect the working class, otherwise companies would take advantage of people for their own benefit.

Some of these people have worked for Hostess for years, putting tax money into the governments coffers. They deserve any help they get.

Good luck to those that have lost their jobs.

If you love twinkies or whatever so much, go work for hostess for peanuts yourself.

Work for Hostess ! They will pay you in Twinkies...

Bbs to answer posts.

They will have fun trying to find a new job with hostess on their app.

They need a black ball list in private industry for these union workers that kill a company.