NCL lends support for Hostess Brand worker strike – National Consumers League
November 13, 2012
Contact: NCL Communications, Carol McKay, (412) 945-3242
Washington, DC–The National Consumers League supports the hardworking members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union and the workers of the Hostess Brand factories in their strike to protect wages, benefits, and fair treatment of workers. Hostess Brand has unfortunately failed to make contributions to employee pension plans as agreed upon in collective bargaining agreements and has drastically cut health benefits and imposed an 8 percent wage decrease.
Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League, said, “We are proud to support the Hostess Brand workers who are only fighting for their rightful wages and benefits as negotiated through the collective bargaining agreement.”
With Hostess’s first bankruptcy declaration in 2004, Hostess workers, in the spirit of sharing reduced revenues and profits, took dramatic cuts in wages and benefits. The closing of 21 factories left thousands of workers without jobs. Hostess employees say they were shocked to learn of the second bankruptcy and watched helplessly as money that was supposed to go towards the rebuilding of production facilities, plant development, and new equipment flowed instead to support executive bonuses and payouts to hedge funds.
Hostess Brand workers, many of whom have spent decades as loyal employees of the company, deserve better than the current situation, in which thousands of workers are unemployed, communities left vulnerable, and families decimated. Sadly, it appears that Hostess has put the interests of Wall Street investors before their loyal employees.
The National Consumers League stands with the striking BCTGM union members and Hostess workers, and urges Hostess Brand to put the interests of their employees before those of fat-cat executives and Wall Street investors.
###
About the National Consumers League
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.
