In other words, the CEOs of Hostess gave themselves too many bonuses?
Quick Google search and voila! From April/2012:
Creditors Question Pay Raises at Hostess Ahead of Bankruptcy Filing – WSJ.com
Creditors of Hostess Brands Inc. said in court papers the company may have “manipulated” its executives’ salaries higher in the months leading up to its Chapter 11 filing, in what the creditors called a possible effort by Hostess to “sidestep” Bankruptcy Code compensation provisions.
The committee representing Hostess’s unsecured creditors alleges that information it has gathered suggests “the possibility” that the company converted a chunk of its top executives’ pay from performance-based bonuses to salary, “at least in part to sidestep” rules designed to ensure that companies in bankruptcy aren’t enticing their employees to stay on board with the promise of cash, according to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y.
Federal law severely restricts “retention” bonuses that reward executives for sticking with distressed companies. Companies now often craft “incentive” plans that pay executives for hitting specific performance targets to avoid running afoul of the law.
The creditors said Hostess continues to pay the pre-bankruptcy salary increases, which aren’t “contingent upon any aspect of the debtors’ business performance or operations.”
And there you have it!
But, of course, republicans are blaming the union, who didn’t want to take concessions so that the higher ups could line their pockets.
This is the kind of bullshit that was happening at the company I used to work for.
They froze our pay for years, took away our profit sharing, cut contributions to medical benefits, told everyone times were hard and everyone was struggling, and meanwhile the higher ups were cutting themselves nice big bonus checks.
YYYYYYUP
(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)