How Not to Act on TV  |   Home  |   The Gift that Keeps on Giving

No Milk for Kids

And people out of work…. thanks to your federal government. ADDED: And Wisconsin’s Attorney General.

Waukesha - The Golden Guernsey dairy processing plant in Waukesha that supplies milk to schools and supermarkets was closed suddenly Saturday when employees showed up for work and were told not to stay, sources said.

Lynn Hiemke, president of Mapleton Dairy Haulers in Oconomowoc, said he was told by Golden Guernsey managers early Saturday that the plant was shutting down.

Hiemke said he was stunned by the closing and left scrambling as he tried to find alternate supplies of milk for hundreds of local schools.

“There’s going to be schools without milk on Monday morning - a lot of them - and they don’t know it yet,” he said.

[...]

The U.S. Department of Justice - along with attorneys general in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan - had raised concerns that Dean Foods would have too much of a share of the school milk supply in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. As a result, they required Dean to sell the Waukesha plant while allowing it to retain its dairy processing plant in De Pere, just south of Green Bay.

Posted by Owen at 1106 hrs
Economy + Politics + Politics - General + Politics - Wisconsin

1. That cuts it! We need a blue ribbon panel to investigate this, and an independent prosecutor to go after that evil, racist money making, not paying their fair share company. They’re likely non-union too. Next, we need a new gov’t department. After all, only Washington, our over-lords and masters can fix this. Sheesh.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 06, 2013 at 1124 hrs
   
   
   

2. Wasn’t the sale a year ago?

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 06, 2013 at 1130 hrs
   
   
   

3. Just like Obama socialists.  Taking the milk out of the mouths of children.

   I am not surprised liberals take milk from children.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 06, 2013 at 1151 hrs
   
   
   

4. I agree with the comments about that Dean being forced to set this plant was complete BS.  However, it should be noted that Wisconsin Attorney General was a MAJOR force in making this happen.

   The actions taken forcing Dean to sell were clearly wrong, but this was a bipartisan cluster between JB Van Hollen and the Wisconsin Dept of AG (Walker Administration and President Obama’s DOJ and Dept of AG.

   There should be legal action taken against the plant operators for their actions, and then we should have some common sense discussions about the situations where a near monopoly (Milk providers), Public Education in small communities, etc… actually is in the best interests of all.

   I normally trust the “free market”, but something the free market leads to disaster (see SE Wisconsin Health Care “redundant building”

   OWEN-  please clarify in the title that the Walker Administion and JB Van Hollen is just as much at fault at the Obama Administration.  You have been EXCELLENT lately & I always enjoy your appearances on Joy Cardin’s show, but let’s stay above the fray and not give the tin hat lefties a chance to distort Obama’s screw up by pointing out that we’re not rightfully giving Walker and Van Hollen blame as well

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 06, 2013 at 1252 hrs
   
   
   

5. Yeah, damn antitrust laws all getting in the way of corporations turning vital industries into oligopolies.

   So antitrust laws are enforced, a private equity firm buys the plant, the private equity firm closes the plant, which means OF COURSE the federal government is to blame. Because in the high temple of Owen Robinson, businesses and investors apparently can never be held accountable for the business decisions they make that adversely affect employees.

   Also, let’s file this way the next time anyone complains about liberals invoking their usual “what about the kids” malarkey.

   Posted by Recess Supervisor on January 06, 2013 at 1328 hrs
   
   
   

6. When we punish people & companies for what they might be able to do instead of what they actually do, we’re begging for trouble.

   Where’s the cutoff? What was the risk of Dean supplying >50% of the schools when say 45% was just fine? If they started raising prices too high, wouldn’t the companies supplying milk to the other 40-something percent of schools be a perfectly fine option? Or just being a bit facetious, but for fun - if there are two companies - one that serves a ton of small schools, another only the biggest - if Company A supplies 55% of the schools, and Company B. 55% of the students - which is more evil?

   I’m not against stepping in - but by and large, the government is just really bad at it. If the the issue was with the expansion of a company via a purchase of another - the time to get involved is before the sale is complete, not after.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 06, 2013 at 1455 hrs
   
   
   

7. It was not just supplying schools with milk, it was that Dean had an extremely large share of the market.  Something like 80% of the total milk market.  That is wholesale, like schools, and retail, grocery stores.  Most of the milk you see in the store is Dean milk, even if it has another label. 

   All this happened a year ago, so I do not see how a plant suddenly closing a year later is all of a sudden the fault of the states and the feds who wanted to end a monopoly.  Can this just be a business decision and is anyone surprised that a private equity firm closed it rather than run it long term?  That is what they do.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 06, 2013 at 1802 hrs
   
   
   

8. John,

   It is there fault because the Feds forced a sale to someone who did not know what they were doing OR did not have the ability to do it as well as Dean’s.

   I’m no fan on Dean’s.

   But if its the choice between Dean’s, the 100 jobs, and nothing.  I choose Dean’s and the jobs.

   I guess there is no liberal compassion here for the workers who are out of work because of the government.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 06, 2013 at 1821 hrs
   
   
   

9. Fine work again, Kevin, throwing around the word “liberal” when you don’t like something, regardless of what RS has said about this article and what the truth is. Ignorance must feel good.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 06, 2013 at 1859 hrs
   
   
   

10. JB took plenty of credit for the break-up: http://test.doj.state.wi.us/media-center/2011-news-releases/august-15-2011

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 06, 2013 at 1947 hrs
    
    
    

11. Kevin- Dean took the highest bidder, which is what they should have done.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 06, 2013 at 2118 hrs
    
    
    

12. JB is by no means a “conservative”.

    He does deserve blame for this as well.

    John,

    The issue is: Dean’s would not have been in that position if it was not forced to be in that position by government policy.

    I don’t fault them for taking highest bid, but they should have been left to do what they did very well, supply milk.

    This is the consequence of stupid government policy….kids without milk.

    I’ll agree both Obama and JB take the milk out of the mouths of children.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2013 at 0815 hrs
    
    
    

13. Dean was doing some pretty serious price fixing, which is why several states asked the federal government to step in.  In Wisconsin, the AG’s office did all the legwork.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2013 at 2113 hrs
    
    
    

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.