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Posted on 08/23/2014 11:53:00 AM PDT by re_tail20
Hostess Brands LLC announced on Aug. 20 that the Illinois bakery where Twinkies were first invented will close this fall. More than 400 workers will be affected by the shuttering of the company’s Schiller Park location in October. Sadly, this isn’t surprising.
In 2012, Hostess closed three bakeries nationwide after a massive union strike, high labor costs and increased competition turned up the heat on the baked-goods company. It’s hard to believe that some variation of these factors didn’t cause Hostess to sever its ties with Illinois. About 280 of the company’s workers in Schiller Park voted to unionize in May.
Union leaders at the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, who were caught off guard by the closure, would have been wise to remember their follies in 2012. They must have thought Hostess was bluffing when they balked at contract negotiations. But Hostess wasn’t bluffing, and now hundreds of workers have lost their jobs.
It didn’t help that the state has been handing out millions in tax breaks and free cash to other confectionaries, while saddling companies such as Jelly Belly and Hostess with the fourth-highest workers’ compensation rates in the nation and the fourth-highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. When Illinois government picked winners, these two companies packed up and shipped out.
There’s a reason why the Twinkie bakery in Indiana is still open for business. As it turns out, the Chicago Tribune reported that some of the Schiller Park workers may be able to get jobs at the Hoosier State facility.
Snack and candy businesses that make money on small margins often can’t afford to play politics. Perhaps if they had been making colorful candies instead of cream-filled cakes, Hostess could have gotten a piece of the action.
Companies want to be located in a State named after Indians?
Those blue states are running off businesses at a brisk pace aren’t they?
Hecho en Mexico.
Getting the hell out of of a state controlled by Chicago.
Bm
Nothing’s changed since the 50s/60s when my family lived in Arlington Heights. Crooked Cook County still runs the state.
[Snack and candy businesses that make money on small margins often can’t afford to play politics.]
They’re also victims of the U.S. sugar subsidy racket—crony capitalism which both parties seem to support.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-03-13/that-sickening-sugar-subsidy
When that old compromiser Everett McKinley Dirksen died in 1969, the future of IL was about shot already. Bernard Epton urged that action be taken “before it is too late”. Too late now, for sure
Texas beckons.
Embrace the suck, UnionTards. The 60's called and what their relevance back.
Great title :)
All your Ho-Ho’s are belong to us.
And they didn’t bring back the Drake’s brand.
I always thought that their oatmeal cookies and coffee cakes were THE BEST.
Absolutely better than any other ones I’ve ever add, and yes Entenmann’s and my dear departed mother in law, this includes you for the coffee cake.
And the oatmeal cookies were just great, not so hard like they often are but not so soft as to be mushy.
We got Mrs. Field’s (I think) cookies at work from a client, they were so soft they tasted like they weren’t cooked. They’d probably be good if you could put then in the over for a few minutes.
You know, this just drives home how stupid politicians can be when it comes to economics. Years ago, when a lot of corporations were leaving unionized states in the north for non-union states in the south, Gov. Celeste signed an exit tax for the state of Ohio. As I recall, any company that was closing an existing plant in OH had to pay an exit tax equal to six month’s payroll. The idea being that those funds would be used to pay unemployment comp and retraining costs. What is amazing is that the politicians were surprised when new company formations in OH went to almost zero after they passed the exit tax. When are they going to learn that tax policy extends beyond simple tax collections. Idiots...
waiting to see how the libtards in wisconsin blame scott walker for this. /semi sarc
This is what change looks like.
Liberal politicians play checkers but real life is chess.
I always preferred Drake’s in my adolescent years.
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