It sounds worse than it actually is...

according to Hostess.  Hostess is seeking to get the bankruptcy court to approve payment of nearly $1.8 million in "bonuses" to executives.

Now that seems very wrong, in the wake of the company's financial collapse in the wake of union givebacks and raises to those very executives just before the bankruptcy filing.  But according to the spokesperson for Hostess, these payments would be made only if the executives remain with the company during its wind-down and if certain goals are met to lower the cost of the company's liquidation.  And, says this spokeshole, these bonus payments are "below the average for bonuses in comparable bankruptcy cases."

Comparable cases?  Where in the world is there a comparable case?  Hostess has been through bankruptcy before and spent five years in a Chapter 11 reorganization from 2004 through 2009.  During that time, the workforce was reduced from 30,000 to 19,000.  The unions that represented these workers went along with the layoffs, along with cuts in pay and benefits.  They were willing to do so in order to make the company competitive. 

Clearly that plan didn't work.  Less than four years after coming out of bankruptcy, the company's financial position is so bad that it can't even undertake a recovery plan.  It blames the unions and obligations to pension and benefit plans for retirees among other things.  If things were so bad, why did the CEOs pay get tripled just before this latest bankruptcy filing?  Could that have been just the last desperate attempt to milk more money from the dying money bush that the company represented to its leadership?  Six CEOs in a ten year period? 

Now they want to spend nearly $2 million more in payment to the idiots who caused this company to fail to keep them from abandoning ship and to incentivize them to perform well during the last days of Hostess.

No.  A hundred times no.  A thousand times no.  If there were any fairness in the world, they'd be made to work for free until the company's assets are liquidated and what compensation they would have received paid into a fund to benefit the thousands of workers who have lost their jobs.  And to the retirees who were counting on their pensions and retirement benefits for their years of service.