Member of Bakers Union From Media Matters in America:
helps change Oregon law AP’s Hostess comeback story ignores
SALEM — Gov. John Kitzhaber
signed House Bill 2950 into law on
June 13. The new law, which goes into
effect Jan. 1, 2014, adds bereavement
leave to the Oregon Family Leave Act.
The new law is the result of years of
work by Robin Zimmerman, a 33-year
rank-and-file member of Bakers Local
114 who works at Bimbo Oroweat in
Beaverton.
Zimmerman became politically ac-
tive in 2008, following the death of his
wife to cancer. Her death impacted him
and their young daughter deeply. Zim-
merman was fortunate to have strong
support from his employer, his union,
and from co-workers, but it opened his
eyes to the fact that the standard leave
for mourning among employers is just
three days.
From his experience, Zimmerman
realized three days away from work
just wasn’t enough. The initial shock
can leave families unable to function
with their daily lives.
As reported in the Labor Press in
February 2011, Zimmerman remem-
bered reading an article about an expan-
sion of the Oregon Family Leave Act.
“Why couldn’t bereavement be included
in that law?” he asked himself. Zimmer-
man consulted with the head of the Bak-
ers Union, Terry Lansing, about how to
get a bill in the Legislature. He did some
research on the Oregon Family Leave
Act, then called his state senator.
Zimmerman told the Labor Press
many people he talked to were unaware
that bereavement leave wasn’t covered
under the act — state or federal.
His first attempt to change the law
fell short in the 2011 Legislature, pass-
ing in the Senate, but failing to get a
hearing in the House. But defeat wasn’t
an option. He returned this session with
a new bill, carried by Rep. Alissa Keny-
Guyer (D-Portland) in the House, and
by Sen. Fred Girod (R-Stayton) in the
Senate. It passed the House 40-18 and
won in the Senate 22-6.
Free screening of ‘Harvest
of Empire’ documentary
July 19 at Labor Center
A free screening of “Harvest of Em-
pire: The Untold Story of Latinos in
America” will be held Friday, July 19,
at 5:30 p.m. at the Oregon Labor Cen-
ter, 3645 SE 32nd Ave., Portland.
The feature-length documentary
takes an unflinching look at the role that
U.S. economic and military interests
played in triggering an unprecedented
wave of migration that is transforming
the nation’s cultural and economic land-
scape.
The free screening is sponsored by
the Oregon AFL-CIO, the Labor Coun-
cil for Latin American Advancement,
and Causa. Food and beverages will be
provided.
For more information, contact Jess
at jess@oraflcio.org or call Reyna at
503-409-2473.
PAGE 8
context about company’s expiration
Gov. John Kitzhaber greets Bakers
Local 114 member Robin Zimmer-
man after signing HB 2950 into law.
The new law, which adds bereave-
ment leave to the Oregon Family
Medical Leave Act, is the result of
years of work by Zimmerman.
The new law amends the Oregon
Family Leave Act to allow a worker in a
firm with 25 or more employees to take
up to two weeks of unpaid leave to deal
with the death of a family member. This
includes attending the funeral (or alter-
native) of a family member; making
arrangements necessitated by the death
of a family member; or grieving the
death of the family member.
The Associated Press (AP) ignored
significant context about the role of or-
ganized labor in its report on the come-
back of Hostess brands and the iconic
Twinkies snack. The article privileged
attacks from executives claiming
unions were to blame for the com-
pany’s demise while ignoring a history
of union concessions, executive pay
raises, and financial mismanagement
that paint a different picture about the
Twinkies temporary expiration.
The AP reported June 23 that Host-
ess Brands LLC, a trimmed-down ver-
sion of the defunct Hostess Brands Inc.,
is aiming to have Twinkies and other
well-known Hostess brand products
back on store shelves by July 15. The
story noted that Hostess went bankrupt
“after an acrimonious fight with its
unionized workers” and described in
he-said-she-said fashion how the com-
pany ultimately failed:
“Hostess Brands Inc. was struggling
for years before it filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy reorganization in early
2012. Workers blamed the troubles on
years of mismanagement, as well as a
failure of executives to invest in brands
to keep up with changing tastes. The
company said it was weighed down by
higher pension and medical costs than
its competitors, whose employees
weren’t unionized.
“To steer it through its bankruptcy
reorganization, Hostess hired restruc-
turing expert Greg Rayburn as its CEO.
But Rayburn ultimately failed to reach
a contract agreement with its second
largest union. In November, he blamed
striking workers for crippling the com-
pany’s ability to maintain normal pro-
duction and announced that Hostess
would liquidate.
“... The trimmed-down Hostess
Brands LLC has a far less costly oper-
ating structure than the predecessor
company. Some of the previous work-
ers were hired back, but they’re no
longer unionized.”
The article’s depiction of the com-
pany’s fall omits crucial context and
leaves readers with the impression that
the act of discarding union workers is
what allowed the “trimmed-down”
company to re-emerge. The AP did not
tell readers that, just three years prior
to Mr. Rayburn’s negotiations with la-
bor, union workers made “substantial
concessions” to aid the company’s fi-
nancial health, or that Hostess stopped
contributing to workers’ pensions and
cut wages and benefits “by 27 to 32
percent.”
Nor did the AP story mention the
dramatic pay raises Hostess provided
its executives during its financial strug-
gles. For example, Brian Driscoll —
Hostess CEO in March 2011 — re-
ceived a salary increase from $750,000
to $2.25 million, according to The Wall
Street Journal.
And while the AP story claims that
“workers” are blaming the company’s
woes on mismanagement and a failure
to adapt to evolving consumer tastes,
this has actually been the opinion of in-
formed and objective third parties. The
AP itself noted in 2012 that “Hostess’
snacks don’t neatly fit into the U.S.
trend toward a healthier lifestyle.” The
Washington Post wrote that Hostess
had been “rife” with problems beyond
labor issues, including “management’s
failure to freshen up a stale product
line.” And The New York Times dis-
covered that the company did not “have
much of a finance department.”
The Twinkies return to the Ameri-
can diet may ultimately be perceived as
a comeback story. But with myths
about the company’s demise rampant
in 2012 media reports, today’s media
should be careful not to rewrite history.
(Editor’s Note: This article is by
Media Matters for America, a not-for-
profit, progressive research and infor-
mation center that monitors, analyzes,
and corrects misinformation in the U.S.
media.)
Newhouse paper threatens to close in New Jersey
NEWARK, N.J. — Advance Publi-
cations, the New Jersey-based New-
house family company that owns the
Oregonian newspaper, is threatening to
close New Jersey’s largest circulation
newspaper — The Star-Ledger — by
the end of the year if its production
unions don’t make steep concessions in
new collective bargaining agreements.
The contracts for nearly 300 drivers,
pressmen, warehouse, and inventory
employees expire in July. Management
sent a letter to the Council of Star-
Ledger Unions June 26 saying the
newspaper will shut down if those
workers don’t accept wage and benefit
cuts by Sept. 27.
‘Brotherhood Outdoors’
5th season airs July 7
Ed Shown, president of the Council
of Star-Ledger Unions and Teamsters
Local 8N, said in a press release the
newspaper is demanding a 55 percent
cut in the entire wage package.
Shown called the threats “another
sad and pathetic attempt to pound all of
our union brothers and sisters into a
state of submission.”
The newspaper threatened a similar
closure in 2008, but the publisher and
unions were able to come to terms on a
deal a few months later.
Shown said in December 2012, the
company gave the unions a 90-day
deadline to meet their demands of a
combined $9 million in cuts — an
amount company officials said they
would save by outsourcing.
The Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s
TV series, “Brotherhood Outdoors,” re-
turns to the Sportsman Channel on Sun-
day, July 7 for its fifth season of taking
everyday sportsmen on extraordinary
adventures. New episodes will air on
Sundays at 8 a.m., with encore airings
on Tuesdays at noon and Thursdays at
3:30 p.m.
The show is presented by Bank of
Labor, and sponsored by several inter-
national unions. For more, go online
to www.unionsportsmen.org.
“Our unions have done exhaustive
studies of advertising revenues. The dis-
parity between the company’s numbers
and our findings is compelling, to say
the least,” Shown said. “The company
will not contest our figures, but still de-
mands $9 million in cuts from its union-
ized workforce.”
Shown said all of the unions are
“more than willing to negotiate a fair
contract and do whatever we have to so
that the Star-Ledger may remain a thriv-
ing newspaper in these challenging eco-
nomic times.”
The 100-year-old newspaper has
771 employees, including 140 in the
newsroom, which is not unionized.
A closure would not impact the
newspaper’s website, NJ.com, which is
owned by a separate company.
Last month, the Newhouse-owned
Oregonian announced plans to reduce
its print edition to four days a week. It
also fired nearly 100 people — about
half from the newsroom.
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
JULY 5, 2013