Posted on 11/17/2012 7:49:01 AM PST by yoe
Perhaps it says something about America—though we're not sure what—that iconic junk foods like Twinkies, Devil Dogs, Ho Hos snack cakes and Wonder bread have endured since the 1930s despite changing consumer health and eating habits. It does say something about institutions that can't—or refuse to—adapt to new economic times that the company behind those products has chosen to go out of business overnight.
Hostess's owners have decided to liquidate rather than ride out a nationwide strike by one of the largest of its dozen unions, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.
[snip] Union work rules usually required cake and bread products to be delivered to a single retail location using two separate trucks. Drivers weren't allowed to load their own vehicles, and the workers who loaded bread weren't allowed to load cake. On most delivery routes, another "pull up" employee moved products from back rooms to shelves.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
ObamaCide.
The union was 5000 strong. Some 13,000 non union people suffer because of them.
ain’t subscribing so can’t read the whole article
They ought to move their operation to a right to work state.
the greatest irony is that the "private equity" firm that owned Hostess, Ripplewood, is owned by a big Democrat contributor and fund-raiser. In fact, Ripplewood and Hostess even hired the famously pro-union politician, Dick Gephardt, as a consultant, to try and help him subdue the unions and limit their astronomical costs.
Thanks...caught it too late*~*
It’s a win-win for the liberals all the way around. An evil corporation is shutting its doors, a nemesis of Michelle Obama’s garden is now gone, and there’s 18,000 more people on the government dole.
What would make me gleeful is for some other company to buy hostess and open up it’s factories (or retool existing factories) in non-union states. We still get Twinkies, and the union thugs lose more power.
I believe that Hostess will some how re-tool and produce great products in “Right to Work” States or non-Union facilities.
One big sticking point was an unfunded pension liability of some $2 Billion. I would not be surprised if the union believed that a liquidated Hostess would give them a better shot at having the government (read: taxpayer) come to the rescue. And Barack Hussein Obama would be only too happy to comply.
I don’t think Hostess could shut down and relocate. The NLRB wouldn’t allow it. Look what happened to Boeing in SC. It would have to be done by a place that “happened to already have a factory” in a right to work, i.e. free state.
I saw a video of some of the workers that were happy it’s over and they can collect unemployment and go get a better job. So if you quit your job you can’t get unemployment, but if you strike and make your company go out of business and lose you job, you can?
Rush seems to think a “Nationalized” Hostess is a possibility.
With unions it’s all about getting paid while working under the table somewhere to avoid the taxes, while at the same time, vilifying the rich for not paying their fair share.
It seems that everything the Unions touch turns to crap at some point-and the workers end up in the toilet with the company having to flush them down the tubes along with their products.
How can workers love their Union knowing they are used this way?? It’s like an abusive marriage...
Have Unions ever made a company better?? Ever? Have they ever made the company lots and lots of money?
My guess would be a big fat NO just based on the fact that they have to have 2 trucks make a delivery-one for cake and one for bread...and how much is the cost of gas now? And I am so SURE their trucks are “green” too...
Next time I go shopping I will tell my husband I need to make 2 trips-one for food and another for cleaning products-he would promptly hide the keys and check the liquor cabinet.
All Unions seem to do is pillage, destroy and leave behind boarded up buildings; they are merely parasites who suck their host dry by any means possible and then just move on to their next victim...
I have detested Unions since about the 5th grade when I began to understand that the annual teacher’s strike in August was really about money- and not about teaching. I loved school and every single year they threatened me with “no school” unless they got more money...even as a 10 year old I knew that that was wrong-they made me sick but thankfully, also made me a Conservative :)
Suzy
Unfortunately, labor law, union contracts and non right to work states, make that impossible,
Thus the liquidation/bankruptcy, it's the only way to void those union contracts.
The ONLY bad guy here is the union-government Marxist conspiracy.
Hostess was murdered by the union, there was no suicide, only a sacrifice to preserve as much value for the investors and legitimate creditors as possible.
Re-name: quick fix, Hostess to Mostess (or something like that).
Recipe change: change just one tiny bit of those recipes and they are in the clear from some lawyer trying to shut them down again claiming planned union busting.
I heard that segment the other day; I’m certain he and his caller were engaging in some tasty satire.
I never liked Twinkies, so won’t miss them. I always preferred the original chocolate cupcakes, although I don’t eat them very often. If I want a chocolate goodie fix, I can always go to Dunkin Donuts and get a chocolate frosted donut...at least for now. It’s a shame that a company that has been around since the 30’s is going out of business because the union wants to milk it dry. I grew up in a neighborhood that had a Hostess bakery in it, and I still miss smelling the fresh baked bread in the air. The unions and demoncrats have destroyed many a good business. This one is just another notch in their belt.
Hostess Brands (the post-2004 Bankruptcy name) was already headquartered in Texas, apparently its' union-related costs in other states were still killing it. Here's an excerpt from the company website:
***************************
In addition to dozens of baking and distribution facilities around the country, Hostess Brands will sell its popular brands, including Hostess®, Drakes® and Dolly Madison®, which make iconic cake products such as Twinkies®, CupCakes, Ding Dongs®, Ho Ho’s®, Sno Balls® and Donettes®. Bread brands to be sold include Wonder®, Nature’s Pride ®, Merita®, Home Pride®, Butternut®, and Beefsteak®, among others.
The wind down means the closure of 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, approximately 5,500 delivery routes and 570 bakery outlet stores throughout the United States.
*********************************
It is likely that the Hostess brand will resurface under new ownership (hopefully one that is smart enough to avoid the union-friendly states that kill profitability). Just don't bake, store or transport the products in those states, period. Sell the damned Twinkies to those markets by mail-order only.
Guess we have to wait four more years before we can liquidate this twinkie.
They were ignored and the strike went forward anyway with the resultant shutdown.
Economic effects of labor unions :
1) cause or perpetuate unemployment
2) cause artificial inequalities in wage rates if confined to isolated industries
3) combat rise in real wages in combating rise in productivity of labor
4) frustrate the law of comparative advantage and prevent the less able from outcompeting the more able
5) the greater the extent of wage increases achieved by labor unions, the more severe become the effects of minimum-wage laws
6) impair capital accumulation by reducing productivity of capital goods
7) monopolize the market against the less able and the disadvantaged
8) prevent increase in money and spending from increasing employment
9) promote racial discrimination
10) reduce average real wage rates by causing unemployment and a lower productivity of labor
11) reduce fraction of worlds money supply circulation in United States
12) responsible for inability of American industries to compete against foreign competitors
13) unemployment caused by labor unions worsens consequences of job loss
14) wage demands of labor unions can lead to more raid increases in quantity of fiat money if government seeks to avoid resulting unemployment by this means
That was the paragraph that jumped out at me, too. Two trucks from the same warehouse to go to the same store each day, by union rule. One for cake and one for bread.
Inefficiency, locked in.
I prefer Suzie Q’s and Devil Dogs but don’t eat junk food like that anymore.
Having grown up in a strong union family, let me give you some insight. Young union workers want more money. Middle aged union workers want more medical benefits. Older union workers want more retirement. In a unionized company, the union will protect shirkers. The company then finds it virtually impossible to fire a troublemaker. This emboldens the troublemakers. Everything becomes a contest between management and the workers. The rest of the Democrat base has no sympathy whatever for the union employees. So the private sector union employees, while supporting the Democrat party, are a casual afterthought to the Democrats. The union comes to represent itself and not the employees. The factory that my Dad worked at recently closed. There was absolutely no concern from the community or the Democrat Governor. If anything, the community was glad that the factory was gone. There are virtually no private sector union jobs left in this state. It’s not a Right To Work state, either. It has been the Democrats who killed the good paying private sector union jobs. And the state has another Democrat Governor.
Last year, I listened to some retired autoworkers tell stories of what they were able to get away with at GM(not work). It was amazing, they seemed proud of it. I walked away thinking I would have been ashamed of it.
That's why the Teamsters said "take the deal you idiots, we've got a two-fer with this gig".
About 5,000 of the "non-union" people were Teamsters members.
The Ding Dong admin or the King Don admin did ‘em in.
Those union bakers are tough but stupid.
Wasn’t that long ago that the same union had a prolonged strike against the Bronx based Stella D’Oro bakery.
Guess what happened? Stella D’Oro is now but a memory. And the a**holes there said the same things these folks are saying.
Some people never learn.
bttp
Somebody else must have taken Stella d’oro over then because they are still in business.
At least in my neck of the woods (Texas) their products are readily available.
Do you know if they still make Anginetti? I used them as integral part of a recipe and have found no substitute.
So, why did the union commit “job suicide”?
Because there’s very little downside. They will still be able to eat and feed their families, thanks to government largesse. And the great thing about it is they won’t have to get up and go to work to do it.
And the Hostess management saw there was little danger in their going Halt.
So it looks like every directly interested party has won.
And the government has convinced us that there are no ramifications for the rest of us, so what does it matter?
They have a website www.stelladoro.com. You might check there. Was that a cookie flavor or one of their toasts?
At least in my neck of the woods (Texas) their products are readily available.
You are right. I forgot that in 2009 after the strike Stella D'Oro closed the original plant in the Bronx and was subsequently sold to N. Carolina based Lance,Inc. So I guess the name lives on but the Bronx plant is gone.
I thought Obama said in the debates that he wanted to rebuild the manufacturing base in America.
This is a great way to start.
-PJ
Fire them and hire those that have their own bats and tire irons.
So that’s what happened to Stella D’oro cookies. I wondered why I couldn’t get their Christmas assortments for tne past six years or so.
Grocery stores in my area no longer carry the Stella D’Oro Christmas collection in the enhanced boxes that they used to supply.
I believe if you went to any union company of 2k employees....and you asked management if they had a list of people who need to be terminated, they’d mostly smile and say yes. Then they’d produce a list of fifty people of the 2k who are making production and stability a daily problem....from alcohol and drug abuse, to full-scale incompetence.
The problem here is that the fifty people who need to be dismissed...are making life miserable for both the company and the remaining employees. The unions absolutely refuse to grasp this and keep the fifty as part of the union to show that they will protect you. Even after one of the fifty causes you to lose your leg in a company accident....they will still protect the fifty.
If you had to pick one serious fault of unions today, it’s simply this protection-game. It’s not benefiting anyone.
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