IAM: Hostess Workers Fight for Final Paychecks

  IAM: Hostess Workers Fight for Final Paychecks

Business Wire

WASHINGTON -- December 24, 2012

While current and former executives at bankrupt Hostess Brands, Inc., decide
how to spend millions in bonuses, hourly workers are discovering their final
paychecks will be short several hundred dollars in promised vacation pay.

According to a bankruptcy-brokered Employee Retention Program at Hostess,
workers taking part in the shutdown of Hostess facilities and those workers
displaced by the closures will not be paid for vacation time accrued during
the previous year. The workers were previously told their earned vacation pay
would be included in their final paychecks.

“This is the latest example of how harshly workers are being treated in the
Hostess bankruptcy,” said Jim Price, who coordinates activities on behalf of
several hundred Hostess employees represented by the International Association
of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. “Outrageous payments for Hostess
executives are being paid for with outrageous sacrifices from Hostess workers.
There is a crying need for balance here.”

In an emotional letter to the judge charged with administering the Hostess
bankruptcy, one employee’s spouse urges the judge to reconsider the priorities
of the so-called bonus program.

“My family and our friends are going to be struggling based on the lack of
pay. While our savings may keep us afloat, it is hard to say how long,” wrote
Patricia Saunders of Puyallup, WA, whose husband was recently notified he
would not receive the promised vacation pay. “At this point, we are going to
be lucky to make it to February.”

The IAM represents nearly 700,000 active and retired workers and is among the
largest industrial trade unions in North America. For more information about
the IAM, visit www.goiam.org.

Contact:

IAMAW
Frank Larkin
301-967-4520 (office)
202-285-3831 (mobile)
flarkin@iamaw.org (email)