Posted on 11/14/2012 4:45:23 PM PST by tobyhill
Hostess Brands said Wednesday that it will go into liquidation unless bakers striking in protest against a new contract imposed in bankruptcy court return to work by the end of the day Thursday.
"We simply do not have the financial resources to survive an ongoing national strike," Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn said in a statement.
The liquidation would result in Hostess' nearly 18,000 workers losing their jobs. The bakers' union represents around 5,000.
The union did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday, but has called the concessions demanded in the new contract "outrageous."
"Our members are on strike because they have had enough," bakers' union president Frank Hurt said in a statement Tuesday. "They are not willing to take draconian wage and benefit cuts on top of the significant concessions they made in 2004 and give up their pension so that the Wall Street vulture capitalists in control of this company can walk away with millions of dollars."
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Nuclear war can’t destroy Twinkies, but unions can.
Not feasible for a firm selling baked goods.
Freshness is a necessary product benefit.
Shipping a product from Texas to Seattle or New York, e.g.:
1. Seriously degrades product quality.
2. And creates an enormous price disadvantage.
If Hostess were to retreat to Irving, TX, they would lose their national business franchise and become just another regional bakery. Which could be a realistic business model.
Fine. You can have half a Twinkie, or nothing.
And I hope the 13,000 non-bakers-union people, if Hostess has to liquidate, remember EXACTLY WHOSE FAULT IT IS that their jobs are gone.
}:-)4
I have never understood the union mentaility that it is better to lose one’s job than to have one’s benefits reduced.
So many stories of Atlas Shrugging lately...
I’ve got my recipe. I’m good.
Ho Ho, union jobs have to go!
Swift move union slugs.
They’re commies, goon, thugs and criminals; they don’t want to compromise. They’d rather do *damage*, and blame the co’s mgmt for it all.
reminds me i need to go to the Hostess bread store and buy bread for stuffing.... wonder bread makes the best stuffing
Potential buyer of Yodels recipe may be organized by Neil Cavuto.
It sounds like it is time for Hostess to go Galt.
Glad to see that they are doing what Reagan did. If you don’t stop striking then you are going to lose your job...and I thought Reagan’s beliefs were gone...good to see them still around.
Some people are really stuck on stupid.
Good thing the members have had enough because now they can go somewhere else.
Sounds like Hostess refuses to be a Hostage.
If the unions don’t croak Hostess the coming fat taxes will.
There are other non-union states, you only need a few to cover most of the country geographically. Twinkies and Hoho’s have a pretty good shelf life and can be trucked. Wonder Bread might have to be franchised out to others in different regions of the country.
Dr. Pepper is done that way, did you know? In different parts of the country/world it is made by Pepsi or Coke, but in Texas/SW it’s made by its own production sites.
Well the Union can be as unwilling as they want to be, but end of the day they can go back to work and have a job, or they can enjoy not having a job and know they personally got nearly 3 extra people fired for every one of them to hold on to their unwillingness.
Public education strikes again.
The driver here is QE, TARP, et al. The FIRE economy is a disaster. Historically recessions/depressions saw sharp drops in wages, but also sharp drops in prices including housing, energy and food.
So far all the policies out of Bush/Obama have been pro-FIRE. If the market had allowed failure, supported by a reassuring government who would allow banks to fail, but backstop the failures (i.e. not create zombie banks), Real Estate prices would have fallen to match the needed drop in wages and overall costs.
Instead we have an interest policy and a banking policy meant to sustain RE pricing and thus zombie banks, combined with a monetary policy that is driving up costs coupled with a federal policy that increases the cost of food, energy and everything.
This is what a Planned Economy looks like. Central planning never works because it is political. All the hungry friends, donors and voters need to be fed. You cannot do it all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.