The Twinkie, a Suicide (Unionside)

WSJ ^ | November 16, 2012 | Editor

[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.

[Real Cynic No More]

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?

[wayoverthehill]

They have a website www.stelladoro.com. You might check there. Was that a cookie flavor or one of their toasts?

[Covenantor]

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.

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.

[Political Junkie Too]

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.

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

[Gene Eric]

Fire them and hire those that have their own bats and tire irons.

[Ciexyz]

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.

[Ciexyz]

Grocery stores in my area no longer carry the Stella D’Oro Christmas collection in the enhanced boxes that they used to supply.

[pepsionice]

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.