Strike Forces Hostess Closure

[typography font="Ubuntu Condensed" size="24" size_format="px" color="darkred"]Twinkies: they can survive 100 years, but they couldn’t survive the union.[/typography]

[typography font="Ubuntu Condensed" size="24" size_format="px"]No more Twinkies? Hostess plans to shut down[/typography]

Hostess Brands Inc., the bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, said it had sought court permission to go out of business after failing to get wage and benefit cuts from thousands of its striking bakery workers.

Hostess said a national strike by members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union that began last week had crippled its ability to produce and deliver products at several facilities.

The liquidation of the company will mean that most of its 18,500 employees will lose their jobs, Hostess said on Friday.

The 82-year-old company said it took the decision to shut down after determining that not enough employees had returned to work by a deadline on Thursday.

The company, which filed for bankruptcy in January for the second time since 2004, said it had filed a motion with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, New York, for permission to shut down and sell assets.

Irving, Texas-based Hostess has 565 distribution centers and 570 bakery outlet stores, as well as the 33 bakeries. Its brands include Wonder, Nature’s Pride, Dolly Madison, Drake’s, Butternut, Home Pride and Merita, but it is probably best known for Twinkies — basically a cream-filled sponge cake.

“We deeply regret the necessity of today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike,” Chief Executive Gregory Rayburn said in a statement.

“Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders,” Rayburn added.

“There’s no way to soften the fact that this will hurt every Hostess Brands employee. All Hostess Brands employees will eventually lose their jobs – some sooner than others,” Rayburn said in a letter to employees.

In its filing with the court, the company said it would have incurred a loss of between $7.5 million and $9.5 million from Nov. 9 to Nov. 19 in lost sales and increased costs.

“These losses and other factors, including increased vendor payment terms contraction, have resulted in a significant weakening of the debtors’ cash position and, if continued, would soon result in the debtors completely running out of cash,” it said.

There’s no doubt that Hostess was in trouble, but rather than work with the company and try to get it going again, the union chose to strike. Wouldn’t a pay cut be better than being out of work altogether? 18,500 people. MORE.

13 Responses to "Strike Forces Hostess Closure"

patti says:

November 16, 2012 at 9:23 am

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/money/Wal-Mart-workers-plan-Black-Friday-walkout/-/1637116/17426674/-/3di2iw/-/index.html

and the moment they walk out the door they should have their time cards ripped in half and be replace by an army of people who are willing to work and happy to have a job
1. Pam says:
  
  November 16, 2012 at 9:55 am
  
  AMEN!
diamond dave says:

November 16, 2012 at 9:45 am

I hope the bakers union is proud of itself, bringing down a 100-year-old respected American company and putting over 18,000 out of work. Even the Teamsters were against the strike.

This is exactly why unions have become so unpopular with so many. They’re even more out of touch than the management they claim to fight.
1. Pam says:
  
  November 16, 2012 at 9:56 am
  
  I’m anti-union. Hope that’s not too obvious.
Quality Weenie says:

November 16, 2012 at 12:00 pm

I grew-up and still live a huge union environment, I still believe unions have their purpose but ….

I think they are still living in the past and they feel the economy is just all being overblown and still think the companies are bluffing about hard times.

They need to come into todays world.
1. Pam says:
  
  November 16, 2012 at 12:45 pm
  
  “…I think they are still living in the past..”
  
  Exactly!
2. Da Goddess says:
  
  November 17, 2012 at 4:56 pm
  
  While I’m obviously not as quality as a certain Weenie, I, too, grew up in a union environment…and I’ve belonged to unions (nurses definitely need representation!). However, unions do not pay my bills, buy my groceries, fill my gas tank, run my kids to school, schedule my appointments, and they DO NOT dictate how I vote. They are meant to protect workers on the job. They do not belong anywhere else, though I understand the need to affect legislation to make workers safer – for that I’m glad – but they continue to over-reach. Time and time again, they go too far. This isn’t the turn of the last century. We aren’t in need of them like we once were.
  
  Hostess will become a part of another company. But not all workers will get their jobs back, and those who do will likely not be paid what they had been paid.
  
  I think I’m gonna go wrestle a 3 year old at Walmart for a Twinkie and drown my sorrows as my mourn common sense.
  1. Pam says:
    
    November 17, 2012 at 9:32 pm
    
    There are twinkie recipes online if you don’t succeed in finding one…
Peter says:

November 16, 2012 at 3:47 pm

I’m not just the son of union members but a son of the Railway Brotherhoods. Oddly though, I have never been in a union job. When I took off Uncle’s suit I applied for several jobs with the railroad and as a machinist with an artillery ammunition plant. So the companies told me I’d have to join the unions before they’d hire me and the unions told me I had to have the job before I could join.

So I ended up in Tejas.
1. Pam says:
  
  November 16, 2012 at 4:28 pm
  
  Mike’s Dad worked for the railroads.
  
  I’ve never held a union job; they tried to come in at a company I worked for, but we succeeded in keeping them out.
  A very open management and employees came together, we were making good money and had good benefits. Why give money to unions?
  
  That was in Texas.
me says:

November 16, 2012 at 7:46 pm

Teamsters in Chicago and Miami (mandatory to keep the job)- CWA in Miami – none of them were a benefit to me and would not help when I needed it – I did have Teamsters closed down the Miami truck lines just like Hostess was closed down – I have seen this many times over the years – I did not know Unions were Democrats, I just knew they were useless assholes -
1. Pam says:
  
  November 16, 2012 at 8:15 pm
Folly says:

November 18, 2012 at 7:19 pm

That’s what they get for being stupid. Happy Holidays, morons, you’re now unemployed.

Comments are closed.