This filing began in January, the CEO was replaced in March, and all signs indicate that Rayburn was on the right path. Four top executives took a 99.999% pay cut, and four others took 40-80% pay cuts in line with restructuring. Nearly half of the union workers had agreed to the new contract. The other half, approximately 4,000 employees out of 18,500 decided to hold out at the advice of their union. The result was what we have before us today. 4,000 greedy assholes led by a destructive, wholly inaccurate union have now successfully killed 18,500 jobs.
What else would you have had the CEO do? Cut the salaries of non-union employees by 50% during the shut down in hopes of keeping the company alive until the 4,000 came to their senses? Fire all non-union employees in hopes of keeping the company alive until the 4,000 came to their senses? Caved to the demands of 1/2 of the union workers, comprising less than 25% of the total work force, even knowing that such a cave would make the business less likely to acquire funding and security for a stable outlook?
The union was wrong here, and it should be made absolutely clear to them that they were wrong.
Comparing what is happening in this bankruptcy filing to what happened damn near 10 years ago is a dishonest means of trying to paint current management as the catalyst for this. Rayburn has been on the job since March of this year and by all appearances meant to save Hostess. Too bad the unions cared less for the company they "helped build" than the man who'd only been there 7 months.
But yeah, make management the villain here, in this situation, in this context, given the facts available. Whatever spin you have to come up with to make it happen is totally cool. What the hell does reality matter, anyway?