twinky...just great. Hostess is shutting down...over 18,000 more
will probably need a job.

I was reading about this the other day. Yet another company that was completely (and possibly intentionally) mismanaged and driven into the ground by greedy suits. I'm sure the execs will all get nice big severance packages and "performance" bonuses while the workers get to beg for food stamps. Shameful. 

Yep, put that in your twinkie and fry it.

Not disputing that the company might have been seriously  mismanaged or anything, but I remember their products being popular back in the day when supermarkets were a fraction of the size they are today, Tang was a big deal and there was nothing considered particularly wrong with packing things like twinkies in kids' school lunches every day. 

IOW, it's sad but I don't find it particularly surprising. 

Hostess..... those guys have been around a long time. 

The reason for the shutdown is cited as union demands. The cost of healthcare and pensions were too much of a drain on the bottom line. The unions refused to help with an 8% cut to pay & benefits... so the company shut the doors when the union employees refused to return to work by the deadline.  So instead of 8%... they got a 100% reduction in pay & benefits....   I hope that works out for ya.... not a good time to be looking for a job.

Our local town just spent $1 million to sue a company wanting to come here with 1100 direct jobs and several hundred more in indirect jobs..... a chicken processing plant.  Live chickens in one door, BBQ ready out the other.  The company decided if we didn't want them and the jobs, they would go somewhere else that did....and they did..... just announced it this week. So we lose 1100+ jobs and paid to do it......how dumb is that? 

Never mind that we have one of the highest unemployment rates in the state..... lets sue to keep 1100 jobs out of here..... 


Well....as far as I'm concerned, Hostess is welcome to come here..... we have lots of people willing to work, and cheaper than those union bozos would, and we have a "right to work" state here..... no forced unions. But I suspect from reading the story on the company, they are selling it all off..... so everybody loses..... 18,000 more in the unemployment lines and no more Ho Ho's and Twinkies in the stores. 

on the local scene in reference to this topic....With Hostess shutting down about 275 people will lose their jobs in Rocky Mount. The local union president said he was relieved: “I don’t have to deal with that anymore. The things that they were trying to do to us, it wasn't fair. They always hold that over our heads, that they’ll close it down. So, I’m like, ‘OK. Close it down." He said, “Our plan is to find another job. We have unemployment, but nobody wants unemployment without the health benefits. So, we’re pretty much going to find another job.” Sure, there is a HUGE demand for oven operators in Rocky Mount, a town of <60,000 people in a county with 11.1% unemployment.

edited.... no matter what the reason.... management or unions not giving an inch..... lots of people are out of work as a result.  The amazing thing to me is the cavalier attitude the local union boss has to folks "finding another job"


It's a real shame.

Alright... I think that's long enough. 

Peace.

From what I've seen, FWIW, there is plenty of blame to go around on all sides.  Corporate leadership was a mess, and on the worker level, at least some would have ended up with a 50% wage decrease when all the previous cuts since the last round of bankruptcy were factored in.

As has already been mentioned, look at their product line.  It was (to keep a musical theme) more in tune with eating habits in the 1950's-1960's than now: loved their stuff as a kid, but haven't had a single thing of theirs in decades.

On an extremely infamous level, having lived in the SF Bay Area at the time, one cannot forget Dan White's "twinkie defense".

Given the product line, it is not unlike manufacturing slide rules in the early 1960's, or buggy whips circa 1905.  1950: Wonder Bread, great stuff, recent decades: the worst non-nutritious tasteless flour goo-ball one can think of.

Yeah, it is another "icon" of sorts gone.  And yes, there are some indications that the leadership "suits" sought to treat themselves well (see also: Avid).

What makes this one a bit more interesting is that the Teamsters, realizing the situation, actually voted in favor of the new reduced contract to keep the jobs, while the bakers union was the one that decided to strike.

I'm REALLY going to miss Twinkies and Ho Ho's...

I may not have them very often, but the similar stuff from other companies doesn't taste as good.

Blame it on the workers???

"Hostess said Friday that much of Hostess Brands is unprofitable under its current cost structure much of which is determined by union wages and pension costs. It said its offer included wage, benefit and work rule concessions, but also gave Hostess Brands’ unions a 25 percent ownership stake in the company, representation on its board of directors and $100 million in reorganized Hostess Brands’ debt.
The union said the company’s problems are of its own making.
“The crisis facing Hostess Brands is the result of nearly a decade of financial and operational mismanagement that resulted in two bankruptcies, mountains of debt, declining sales and lost market share,” the union said in a statement Thursday. “The Wall Street investors who took over the company after the last bankruptcy attempted to resolve the mess by attacking the company’s most valuable asset – its workers.
“Our members know that the plans all along of the Wall Street investors currently in control of this company did not include the operation of Hostess Brands any longer than it takes to sell the company in whole – or in part – in a way that will maximize the profits of these vulture capitalists regardless of the impact on the workforce.”

Both sides will point fingers... so who's to say which side is "more right" than the other?




BUT.... on the brighter side......




How do you get  Southern Cal U coed into your dorm room? 



You grease the door frame, and leave a Twinkie in plain sight in the room .....