"What [the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980] created was a bankruptcy machine that leaves employers participating in underfunded Multiemployer Defined Benefit Plans little other choice. Hostess was paying $22 million in contributions annually into This Dead Plan and wanted out. What they would have found is a draconian barrier called withdrawal liability which places the entire burden for making up shortfalls on employers who were silly enough not to jump ship earlier and allows the union very favorable terms for calculating this liability.... In this rigged game folding up was the only sensible option."  MORE >>