Union kills the Twinkie

[sc281]

They dont call those ding dongs anymore?

That look like a ding dong to you?




in other news:


I just checked, and Starcrunch is made by Little Debbie.


WHEW... I was skurred for a second.

[stang]

I bet a Chinese company buys them!

[2011GT]

That look like a ding dong to you?




in other news:


I just checked, and Starcrunch is made by Little Debbie.


WHEW... I was skurred for a second.

Havent had one in probably 15 years. Youre right though its a little different.

[Nash B.]

They dont call those ding dongs anymore?

You're killing me, Smalls.

[The King]

I bet a Chinese company buys them!

I would suspect Grupo Bimbo will put in a bid, as they did with the former Mrs. Bairds.

[jayjohnson600]

Hostess is dead, bring on the Bimbo's.

[ELVIS]

Hostess is dead, bring on the Bimbo's.

Chivas de Guadalajara


god bless.

[Forever_frost]

It appears that Friday marks the beginning of the end of the 82-year run of a Chicago-born American classic snack cake: The Twinkie.

Hostess Brands, Texas-based maker of Twinkies and a number of other snack foods, announced Friday that, on the heels of a nationwide worker strike, it will be going out of business, closing its production plants and laying off the vast majority of its 18,500 employees nationwide. As for the Twinkie brand? It will be going up for sale.

Three of the company's plants -- including one in St. Louis -- closed earlier this week as workers went on strike in response to wage cuts and new limitations in worker participation in pension plans. Now, 1,415 workers at the company's three Illinois bakeries -- in Schiller Park, Hodgkins and Peoria -- are losing their jobs, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The Twinkie traces its roots to a Schiller Park, Ill. bakery where, in 1930, James Dewar turned his sponge cake dreams into reality. CBS Chicago reports that the cakes were originally stuffed with banana-flavored cream, but that World War II banana rationing required a switch to the iconic snack's vanilla flavor.

The Twinkie's flagship Schiller Park bakery is the small Cook County village's largest employer, according to Gapers Block.

Chicago was previously named the "Twinkie Capital of the World" as it was home to the nation's highest per capita consumption of the treat.

Hostess, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year, also makes Ding Dongs, Ho Ho's, Sno Balls, Wonder Bread and Dolly Madison snacks.

"Hostess Brands is unprofitable under its current cost structure, much of which is determined by union wages and pension costs," a Hostess press release read Friday, according to ABC Chicago.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/hostess-brands-liquidatio_n_2143830.html?utm_hp_ref=chicago

Enjoy the unemployment lines you bastards. I hope we hit the fiscal cliff so you can only draw the 26 weeks. This is unions not giving things up when things are bad, when the company is in bankruptcy.

[CJ]

The Twinkie - able to survive a thermonuclear explosion, but not the unions.

[mstng86]

SON OF A BITCH!!!

Now what do we do?

[CJ]

They didn't vote themselves out of a job, they voted themselves into welfare for you to pay them for doing even less than what they do at work.

[Broncojohnny]

I think it is great. Companies that aren't profitable should go out of business. Greedy unionized labor should be unemployed. The brand has value and will be sold to someone who can make it work.

[Vertnut]

I think it is great. Companies that aren't profitable should go out of business. Greedy unionized labor should be unemployed. The brand has value and will be sold to someone who can make it work.

Exactly! Hostess as an entity will be gone, but those recipes are for sale.

[Forever_frost]

The most interesting tidbit in the sad demise of Hostess is the fact that the Teamsters union ignored a strike by a fellow union and crossed the picket-line in a bid to save the company. The Teamsters, not exactly a shrinking violet, got a look at the company's books and realized the dire financial situation Hostess was in. They even implored the Bakers' Union, which called a strike, to accept wage concessions and get back to work. Alas, they didn't and now the company faces liquidation. The Bakers' Union ultimately accomplished what mere physics couldn't; they pushed the Twinkie past its sell-by date.

Hostess Brands Inc. had warned employees that it would file to unwind its business and sell off assets if plant operations didn't return to normal levels by 5 p.m. Thursday. In announcing its decision, Hostess said its wind down would mean the closure of 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, approximately 5,500 delivery routes and 570 bakery outlet stores in the United States.

The company also announced that it would immediately lay-off its 18,500 workers. The Bakers' Union only represented around 30% of the company's total workforce. All other workers had already accepted wage concessions and changes to the company's work-rules. 70% of the workforce accepted pay cuts of around 4% over 5 years. Given the general state of the economy, that seems very modest and would have allowed the company to continue operating. But, the Bakers' Union instead went on strike, without even offering counter-demands. As a result, they have forced 100% pay cuts on all employees.

The behavior of the Bakers' Union goes a long way to explain why, increasingly, we can't have nice stuff in this country. A significant portion of the public thinks it ought to be immune from the consequences of its decisions and choices. They want to keep having free stuff, paid for by mythical "other" people.

We're not so much facing strong economic headwinds as we are a great reckoning, reaping the consequences of decades of poor policy choices. Virtually ever economic challenge we face can be directly tied to a well-intentioned, but misguided, government policy decision. Yet, many still labor under the illusion that even more government action can fix these problems.

Like the Bakers' Union, many of us hope to avoid reality. But, such hopes have an expiration date. We've reached ours.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/16/teamsters-cross-picket-line-fail-to-save-twinkie

[jryotas]

My wife's mom's boyfriend has worked for them as a route driver for years and was making decent $ . He knew about the pay cut he was about to take and was fine with it as he would rather be working but today he got the call to park the truck and turn in the keys . So sad that decent honest working people are going to be affected by the greed and stupidity of unions . Dont think we arnt unloading the truck as i type anyone need a last twinkie ?