Guess we have to wait four more years before we can liquidate this twinkie.
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 ...
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:
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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.
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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.
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