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PITTSBURG —
Dear editor,
Why was Twinkie killed? Was she killed to keep her from killing more of us? Was it suicide due to the shame of bankruptcy? In 2009 Ripplewood Holdings, a private equity company, bought Hostess in a bankruptcy sale and sank them $860,000 further in debt obligating them to high interest payments. They siphoned millions of dollars out of Hostess with “consulting and management fees” which did nothing for the company. The CEO’s paycheck went from $750,000 to $2.5 million per year. The company’s executives claim that greedy union officials refused to take cuts to save the company even though the union had given back $100 million in annual wages and benefits to help the company survive. In the past year Hostess had $2.5 billion in sales, yet it had $1.1 billion in losses. I have my doubts the 18,500 workers received $3.6 billion in wages and benefits. On November 21, 2012 Ripplewood pulled the plug saying the company couldn’t survive, so Twinkie, at age 82, was euthanized. During the election CEOs of Darden Restaurants {Red Lobster/Olive Garden}, Papa John’s and Applebee’s pledged to retaliate if Obama was elected and Obamacare was fully implemented. Since then they raised prices and reduced employees hours to less than 30 so they wouldn’t need to pay for their healthcare. They forgot that poor Democrats and people who desire healthy workers handling their pizza or bread sticks eat too. I don’t care who handles my food as long as they don’t expect tips.
Albert Newland
Pittsburg
Dear editor,
Why was Twinkie killed? Was she killed to keep her from killing more of us? Was it suicide due to the shame of bankruptcy? In 2009 Ripplewood Holdings, a private equity company, bought Hostess in a bankruptcy sale and sank them $860,000 further in debt obligating them to high interest payments. They siphoned millions of dollars out of Hostess with “consulting and management fees” which did nothing for the company. The CEO’s paycheck went from $750,000 to $2.5 million per year. The company’s executives claim that greedy union officials refused to take cuts to save the company even though the union had given back $100 million in annual wages and benefits to help the company survive. In the past year Hostess had $2.5 billion in sales, yet it had $1.1 billion in losses. I have my doubts the 18,500 workers received $3.6 billion in wages and benefits. On November 21, 2012 Ripplewood pulled the plug saying the company couldn’t survive, so Twinkie, at age 82, was euthanized. During the election CEOs of Darden Restaurants {Red Lobster/Olive Garden}, Papa John’s and Applebee’s pledged to retaliate if Obama was elected and Obamacare was fully implemented. Since then they raised prices and reduced employees hours to less than 30 so they wouldn’t need to pay for their healthcare. They forgot that poor Democrats and people who desire healthy workers handling their pizza or bread sticks eat too. I don’t care who handles my food as long as they don’t expect tips.
Albert Newland
Pittsburg
