Did Hostess Steal Its Workers' Retirement Money?
Believe it or not, that that may not even be the worst of it if this account is true. Six CEOs in ten years, insider trading...then there's this, concerning the final offer that the union rejected:
What was this last/best/final offer? You'd never know by watching the main stream media tell the story. So here you go...
1) 8% hourly pay cut in year 1 with additional cuts totaling 27% over 5 years. Currently, I make $16.12 an hour at TOP rate of pay in the bakery. I would drop to $11.26 in 5 years.
2) They get to keep our $3+ an hour forever.
3) Doubling of weekly insurance premium.
4) Lowering of overall quality of insurance plan.
5) TOTAL withdrawal from ALL pensions. If you don't have it now then you never will.
Remember how I said I made $48,000 in 2005 and $34,000 last year? I would make $25,000 in 5 years if I took their offer.
It will be hard to replace the job I had, but it will be easy to replace the job they were trying to give me.
I just don't know what to say about this madness/criminality.
posted by Winston Smith at
8:37 PM
2 Comments:
Well, I have no knowledge about any insider trading but... I have it from a neutral party who is familiar with the negotiations that the real issue was the pensions. That said the information this disgruntled employee has is just wrong per my source. There wasn't to be a total defunding of the pensions, but a move to a 401k system with no or minimal employer contribution. As for the pay, it was a 4% cut this year, followed but 3% raises the next three years and 1% in the final year of the contract. While this isn't great as with inflation ultimately this would be a loss in real wages over the course of the contract, it isn't the massive cut the employee is claiming.
There wasn't to be a total defunding of the pensions, but a move to a 401k system with no or minimal employer contribution
believe me, this is essentially defunding the pension system. If you are supposed to get say, $20K/year from your pension and the company "seeds" your 401k with $30K and now says you are on your own. That is essentially defunding it.
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