Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Pick of the day: Spread blame for jobs getting iced
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The Hostess Twinkie story ("Twinkies maker Hostess shutting down," Nov. 17) is subheaded, "The company was dragged down by high cost of unionized work force." Ten paragraphs down, we learn "nearly a dozen executives received pay hikes of up to 80 percent in 2011." No dollar amount mentioned.
We know Hostess is paying $100 million a year in pension costs, but we don't know how many millions these executives are taking out of the company. We do know their 80 percent pay increase is a sudden dramatic increase in costs, while pension cost increases are gradual and foreseeable. But the subhead does not say, "Company wrecked by sudden executive pay increase."
And we don't know how many workers accepted a pension as part of their pay, and will be cheated out of it. We don't know the costs to government programs where these pensionless workers will now be dumped.
No mention of the damage to our economy if these jobs are shipped to some low-wage country so a few people at the top can pay themselves a lot and hide it in the Cayman Islands so they don't have to pay U.S. taxes. What do they owe us anyway?
ERIC SUTPHIN
HILLSVILLLE
