The Hostess-Twinkie who did what to kill it/them thread

[OohPooPahDoo]

Well, I'm going to miss the occasional Twinkie. Bought the last box left in my local supermarket today. I think I'll put them away in the freezer and treat myself to one every time some union thug gets hosed through his own stupidity and greed. I bet the look on their faces over at the Baker's Union was absolutely priceless when they realized they'd just put an entire workforce, 18,500 strong, on the unemployment line. I hope someone thought to videotape their expressions. >>><<< I'd like to see that on YouTube.

There will still be Twinkies, they'll just be made by whatever company buys the rights to make them and call them "twinkies"

This is a company which survived the Great Depression, but couldn't survive one term under Barack Obama. How fucking sad is that?
Cest la vie, I reckon. It's the beginning of the end, right? Another great American tradition bites the dust. Soon to be followed by many, many more, I'm sure.

I didn't know that Obama was the CEO of Hostess. Wow, it must be tough for him to balance being President of the U.S. and CEO of a company at the same time.

Dear God... I hope the new CEOs are Japanese, that they take production overseas, and then SHIP them in. It will be Just Desserts in more ways than one. Then the stupid, union fucksticks who caused this mess can walk by them in the International Foods section of their local supermarket, where if there's any justice left in this world they will be wrapped in the gaudiest trappings that the people who gave us Pokemon, Samarai Warrior, and vending-machine live crabs can come up with... and remember when.

The strike began last week. Hostess filed for bankruptcy last January, the second time since 2009. The vulture capitalists that own the company wanted to cut wages by 30% - after the CEO got a 300% raise. That you would come down on the side of the vultures and blame the employees for the company failing is ridiculous - but not at all surprising. Do you honestly expect employees will just take any pay cut their boss's demand - after the boss's themselves give themselves a massive pay hike? Vulture capitalists buy companies for the purposes of raiding their assets - they have no intention of promoting long term solvency. Almost half of their plants were already due to be closed down by the vultures anyway, and if they expected folks to take massive pay cuts after they raid the company's cash for their own salaries - they made a massive miscalculation. That's a poor decision by the owners and management, not the employees.


If you work for someone - how big of a pay cut would you be willing to take personally to fund a 300% raise for your boss?
Or - if you run your own business - how big a pay cut would you expect your employees to take to fund a 300% raise for you?




BTW - how many twinkies have you eaten this past week?

 

[Againsheila]

hahahahahahahahahahahahah


workers have rights even if you dont want them to have rights.



sell your hate of workers to the American people.

Im sure they love twinkies more than freedom.

Jesus you people just dont get it

Laugh it up. 18000 people are out of work.

And would have been anyway, sooner or later, The company was bought out by a hedge fund, which looted the company and then declared bankruptcy. the union played right into their hands, now they don't have to pay unemployment or severance, just gravy for them. Doesn't stop them from paying their CEOs $millions and their upper management "retention bonuses." Silly me, I always thought "retention" was for staying.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

hahahahahahahahahahahahah


workers have rights even if you dont want them to have rights.



sell your hate of workers to the American people.

Im sure they love twinkies more than freedom.

Jesus you people just dont get it

Laugh it up. 18000 people are out of work.

Because vulture capitalists bought a company, gave themselves big salaries, and then tried to cut their employees pay.

 

[blackhawk]

The Twinkie has died a American original is no more so has the left blamed Bush yet just asking?

 

[MikeK]

The real parasites are the fucking board, after giving themselves a huge pay raise in July, $750,000 to $2,550,000 in the case of the CEO, they demanded workers take substantial pay and pension cuts. If the company is in such bad shape why the unwillingness to share the pain? Those assholes are going to loot the company, leave with juicy golden parachutes and stick it to the people who worked there for years and the workers are the bad people for getting upset and trying to fight.

It's troubling to see so many corporatist lackeys offhandedly denounce the Bakers' Union without the slightest awareness of or concern for the union's position. I wonder how many of these foot-soldiers for the rising corporatocracy realize how important the union movement has been to them, their parents, and to all working class Americans.

It is possible the Bakers Union's position was unreasonable and if it was then criticism is in order. But to just go off on a broadly anti-union rant the way some of these individuals have done, without knowing any of the facts, is a betrayal of one of the most important institutions in the lives of the American Middle Class. In fact, without unions there would be no American Middle Class.

 

[Murf76]

Well, I'm going to miss the occasional Twinkie. Bought the last box left in my local supermarket today. I think I'll put them away in the freezer and treat myself to one every time some union thug gets hosed through his own stupidity and greed. I bet the look on their faces over at the Baker's Union was absolutely priceless when they realized they'd just put an entire workforce, 18,500 strong, on the unemployment line. I hope someone thought to videotape their expressions. >>><<< I'd like to see that on YouTube.

There will still be Twinkies, they'll just be made by whatever company buys the rights to make them and call them "twinkies"

This is a company which survived the Great Depression, but couldn't survive one term under Barack Obama. How fucking sad is that?
Cest la vie, I reckon. It's the beginning of the end, right? Another great American tradition bites the dust. Soon to be followed by many, many more, I'm sure.

I didn't know that Obama was the CEO of Hostess. Wow, it must be tough for him to balance being President of the U.S. and CEO of a company at the same time.

There will still be Twinkies, they'll just be made by whatever company buys the rights to make them and call them "twinkies"




I didn't know that Obama was the CEO of Hostess. Wow, it must be tough for him to balance being President of the U.S. and CEO of a company at the same time.

Dear God... I hope the new CEOs are Japanese, that they take production overseas, and then SHIP them in. It will be Just Desserts in more ways than one. Then the stupid, union fucksticks who caused this mess can walk by them in the International Foods section of their local supermarket, where if there's any justice left in this world they will be wrapped in the gaudiest trappings that the people who gave us Pokemon, Samarai Warrior, and vending-machine live crabs can come up with... and remember when.

The strike began last week. Hostess filed for bankruptcy last January, the second time since 2009. The vulture capitalists that own the company wanted to cut wages by 30% - after the CEO got a 300% raise. That you would come down on the side of the vultures and blame the employees for the company failing is ridiculous - but not at all surprising. Do you honestly expect employees will just take any pay cut their boss's demand - after the boss's themselves give themselves a massive pay hike? Vulture capitalists buy companies for the purposes of raiding their assets - they have no intention of promoting long term solvency. Almost half of their plants were already due to be closed down by the vultures anyway, and if they expected folks to take massive pay cuts after they raid the company's cash for their own salaries - they made a massive miscalculation. That's a poor decision by the owners and management, not the employees.


If you work for someone - how big of a pay cut would you be willing to take personally to fund a 300% raise for your boss?
Or - if you run your own business - how big a pay cut would you expect your employees to take to fund a 300% raise for you?




BTW - how many twinkies have you eaten this past week?

Well, as it turns out... they took a 100% decrease. You can't fuck with a company which is ALREADY in bankruptcy proceedings. That's not rocket science. I have no idea whether your statistics above are correct or not, but I don't much care either. The fact of the matter is that the guy who squirts the cream filling in the cupcakes is NOT going to make as much money as the guy who runs the entire organization. Tough cupcakes, but it is what it is.

 

[Bigfoot]

I just picked up two boxes of Twinkies at the store

 

[Charles_Main]

[The Teamsters decided that if they didn't get what they wanted from Hostess, they'd kill the company. Grabbing the big bucks was well worth the risk of having no job at all. You can rest assured the likewise morons at GM and Chrysler will think the same way, for after all didn't they rape and sodomize the company they originally worked for until the death rattle was heard night and day throughout its plants, offices, and dealerships until the Union friendly Democrat, Barack Obama, came in and said I'll rape and sodomize the taxpayers instead so you can still keep your jobs in return for your votes. Obama did it once, the Union knows its guaranteed he'll do it again. The sky's the limit on their wages only because they have the taxpayer at their mercy to subsidize them until they reach infinity. GM's new plan for its business success also includes selling a vehicle for $40,000 that costs GM $89,000 to produce. What a plan. The miraculous fruits of affirmative action at work at GM
Richard Trumka says he's going to send his union goons door to door to convince American businessmen to see the light regarding Obamanomics.]

"Back in September, following acceptance by the Teamsters. the bakers’ union (BCTGM) at bankrupt Hostess brands—makers of the iconic Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder brand breads—rejected a company proposal to help keep the company in business. By a voice vote of its members, the union opened the door to conduct a company-killing strike and potentially putting 18,500 Hostess workers onto the streets.

Well, on Friday, the bakers’ union called its members on strike nationwide. Now the job cuts begin.

On Monday, Hostess permanently closed three of its plants, thanks to the union’s strike:

Hostess Brands permanently closed three bakeries Monday, including a plant in St. Louis where 365 jobs were cut, in response to a bakers’ union strike that started Friday.

The bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder bread said it’s trying to avert liquidating the entire company, and it shuttered three plants that were no longer able to produce and deliver products because of picket lines. The other plant closures are in Seattle and Cincinnati, where a combined 262 jobs were cut."

The Demise of Twinkies? Yes, It’s True. Parasitic Unions Kill Their Hosts (or, in this case, Hostess) | RedState

Another victim of unchecked Union Greed.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

Well, I'm going to miss the occasional Twinkie. Bought the last box left in my local supermarket today. I think I'll put them away in the freezer and treat myself to one every time some union thug gets hosed through his own stupidity and greed. I bet the look on their faces over at the Baker's Union was absolutely priceless when they realized they'd just put an entire workforce, 18,500 strong, on the unemployment line. I hope someone thought to videotape their expressions. >>><<< I'd like to see that on YouTube.

There will still be Twinkies, they'll just be made by whatever company buys the rights to make them and call them "twinkies"




I didn't know that Obama was the CEO of Hostess. Wow, it must be tough for him to balance being President of the U.S. and CEO of a company at the same time.

Dear God... I hope the new CEOs are Japanese, that they take production overseas, and then SHIP them in. It will be Just Desserts in more ways than one. Then the stupid, union fucksticks who caused this mess can walk by them in the International Foods section of their local supermarket, where if there's any justice left in this world they will be wrapped in the gaudiest trappings that the people who gave us Pokemon, Samarai Warrior, and vending-machine live crabs can come up with... and remember when.

The strike began last week. Hostess filed for bankruptcy last January, the second time since 2009. The vulture capitalists that own the company wanted to cut wages by 30% - after the CEO got a 300% raise. That you would come down on the side of the vultures and blame the employees for the company failing is ridiculous - but not at all surprising. Do you honestly expect employees will just take any pay cut their boss's demand - after the boss's themselves give themselves a massive pay hike? Vulture capitalists buy companies for the purposes of raiding their assets - they have no intention of promoting long term solvency. Almost half of their plants were already due to be closed down by the vultures anyway, and if they expected folks to take massive pay cuts after they raid the company's cash for their own salaries - they made a massive miscalculation. That's a poor decision by the owners and management, not the employees.


If you work for someone - how big of a pay cut would you be willing to take personally to fund a 300% raise for your boss?
Or - if you run your own business - how big a pay cut would you expect your employees to take to fund a 300% raise for you?




BTW - how many twinkies have you eaten this past week?

Well, as it turns out... they took a 100% decrease. You can't fuck with a company which is ALREADY in bankruptcy proceedings. That's not rocket science. I have no idea whether your statistics above are correct or not, but I don't much care either. The fact of the matter is that the guy who squirts the cream filling in the cupcakes is NOT going to make as much money as the guy who runs the entire organization. Tough cupcakes, but it is what it is.

So the guy who squirts the cream should be willing to work for whatever price his boss demands, and if he refuses and the company fails as a result - its all his fault (and Obama's) right?

Yes?

No?

 

[Againsheila]

hahahahahahahahahahahahah


workers have rights even if you dont want them to have rights.



sell your hate of workers to the American people.

Im sure they love twinkies more than freedom.

Jesus you people just dont get it

Laugh it up. 18000 people are out of work.

Because vulture capitalists bought a company, gave themselves big salaries, and then tried to cut their employees pay.

And had the union not gone on strike, they still would have closed the company. Otherwise, they would have brought in scabs. The economy being the way it is, they would have no problem finding enough scabs.

 

[AmyNation]

I just can't wrap my head around workers who would rather put their employer and by extension, themselves, out of business, rather than work for less.

Baffling.

 

[jwoodie]

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/nationalize-twinkie-industry/cJz0ngJR

 

[Murf76]

There will still be Twinkies, they'll just be made by whatever company buys the rights to make them and call them "twinkies"




I didn't know that Obama was the CEO of Hostess. Wow, it must be tough for him to balance being President of the U.S. and CEO of a company at the same time.

The strike began last week. Hostess filed for bankruptcy last January, the second time since 2009. The vulture capitalists that own the company wanted to cut wages by 30% - after the CEO got a 300% raise. That you would come down on the side of the vultures and blame the employees for the company failing is ridiculous - but not at all surprising. Do you honestly expect employees will just take any pay cut their boss's demand - after the boss's themselves give themselves a massive pay hike? Vulture capitalists buy companies for the purposes of raiding their assets - they have no intention of promoting long term solvency. Almost half of their plants were already due to be closed down by the vultures anyway, and if they expected folks to take massive pay cuts after they raid the company's cash for their own salaries - they made a massive miscalculation. That's a poor decision by the owners and management, not the employees.


If you work for someone - how big of a pay cut would you be willing to take personally to fund a 300% raise for your boss?
Or - if you run your own business - how big a pay cut would you expect your employees to take to fund a 300% raise for you?




BTW - how many twinkies have you eaten this past week?

Well, as it turns out... they took a 100% decrease. You can't fuck with a company which is ALREADY in bankruptcy proceedings. That's not rocket science. I have no idea whether your statistics above are correct or not, but I don't much care either. The fact of the matter is that the guy who squirts the cream filling in the cupcakes is NOT going to make as much money as the guy who runs the entire organization. Tough cupcakes, but it is what it is.

So the guy who squirts the cream should be willing to work for whatever price his boss demands, and if he refuses and the company fails as a result - its all his fault (and Obama's) right?

Yes?

No?

What are the particularly rare and valuable skills and qualifications make the guy who squirts the cream into the Twinkies difficult to replace? See, THAT's the problem. Unions want more for their labor than their labor is worth as it relates to pricing product units. And because there's no option to replace them, businesses go under. I'm not paying seven bucks for a box of Twinkies. Nobody would. And so.... no Twinkies for anybody. That is, unless some foreign entity purchases the rights, produces them overseas, and then ships them back in.

Unions have outlived their usefulness because it's a GLOBAL market.

 

[Againsheila]

Well, as it turns out... they took a 100% decrease. You can't fuck with a company which is ALREADY in bankruptcy proceedings. That's not rocket science. I have no idea whether your statistics above are correct or not, but I don't much care either. The fact of the matter is that the guy who squirts the cream filling in the cupcakes is NOT going to make as much money as the guy who runs the entire organization. Tough cupcakes, but it is what it is.

So the guy who squirts the cream should be willing to work for whatever price his boss demands, and if he refuses and the company fails as a result - its all his fault (and Obama's) right?

Yes?

No?

What are the particularly rare and valuable skills and qualifications make the guy who squirts the cream into the Twinkies difficult to replace? See, THAT's the problem. Unions want more for their labor than their labor is worth as it relates to pricing product units. And because there's no option to replace them, businesses go under. I'm not paying seven bucks for a box of Twinkies. Nobody would. And so.... no Twinkies for anybody. That is, unless some foreign entity purchases the rights, produces them overseas, and then ships them back in.

Unions have outlived their usefulness because it's a GLOBAL market.

If they employees could have been replaced so easily, they could have hired scabs. Of course then they wouldn't be able to blame the union for their closing and get out of severance packages and unemployment insurance for them. Face it, the union didn't drive this company out of business, the Capitalists exploited it out of business. They looted it and expected the employees put up with it for as long as possible. In the end, the company still would have closed. That's what happens when a company is run by people more concerned with how much money they can get out of a company than how to keep it operating.

 

[Murf76]

So the guy who squirts the cream should be willing to work for whatever price his boss demands, and if he refuses and the company fails as a result - its all his fault (and Obama's) right?

Yes?

No?

What are the particularly rare and valuable skills and qualifications make the guy who squirts the cream into the Twinkies difficult to replace? See, THAT's the problem. Unions want more for their labor than their labor is worth as it relates to pricing product units. And because there's no option to replace them, businesses go under. I'm not paying seven bucks for a box of Twinkies. Nobody would. And so.... no Twinkies for anybody. That is, unless some foreign entity purchases the rights, produces them overseas, and then ships them back in.

Unions have outlived their usefulness because it's a GLOBAL market.

If they employees could have been replaced so easily, they could have hired scabs. Of course then they wouldn't be able to blame the union for their closing and get out of severance packages and unemployment insurance for them. Face it, the union didn't drive this company out of business, the Capitalists exploited it out of business. They looted it and expected the employees put up with it for as long as possible. In the end, the company still would have closed. That's what happens when a company is run by people more concerned with how much money they can get out of a company than how to keep it operating.

It's not as easy as simply hiring scabs. If it was, unions could never pull off a strike.
This company was already in trouble, and they had made it very clear that the ONLY way it would survive is to trim its labor costs.

A liquidation has loomed large since Hostess's latest bankruptcy case kicked off in January. From the start, the company has warned that labor cuts were its only chance to survive.

Months of back-and-forth threats and court proceedings ultimately led to delivery-truck drivers and some plant workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to agree to deep concessions. But the bakers' union, known as the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, resisted.

In the end, a bankruptcy judge gave Hostess permission to force the bakers union to accept a new five-year labor contract that featured an 8% wage cut in the first year, new pension plan restrictions and a 17% increase in healthcare costs for employees.

The bakers' union went on strike. "Our members decided they were not going to take any more abuse from a company they have given so much to for so many years," said Frank Hurt, the bakers' union president, in a statement on Friday. Mr. Hurt didn't respond to requests for comment Friday.

The Teamsters on Friday stood by its decision to accept the cuts and criticized the bakers' union. "What we've seen in the past 24 hours is very clear proof that our advisers and our union was right," said Ken Hall, the Teamsters' treasurer and general secretary.

cont...Twinkie Maker Hostess to Close - WSJ.com

Regardless of whether there were bad players in the past, this was the LAST CHANCE for this business to be saved, and that fact was made clear to these unions. They chose instead to get a 100% decrease for their members, rather than take an 8% wage cut.

 

[cutter]

I haven't had a Twinkie in years. I went out and bought a box of 20 today just for old time sake. They are every bit as good as I remember. Good bye twinkie. You'll be missed.

 

[occupied]

Don't mourn the Twinkie, it's a small price to pay in the big business war on American working class pensions and decent wages.

 

[JoeB131]

I just can't wrap my head around workers who would rather put their employer and by extension, themselves, out of business, rather than work for less.

Baffling.

Probably because they realize that most of their competitors are unionized, and when Hostess goes out of business, they'll need more help and get picked up when the Hall gives them a call.

Here's the key thing...

The union already made a lot of concessions. To the point where they were the lowest paid people in their industry. And the company used those savings (about 150 million dollars) to pay off investors andpay themselves bonuses.

 

[Againsheila]

What are the particularly rare and valuable skills and qualifications make the guy who squirts the cream into the Twinkies difficult to replace? See, THAT's the problem. Unions want more for their labor than their labor is worth as it relates to pricing product units. And because there's no option to replace them, businesses go under. I'm not paying seven bucks for a box of Twinkies. Nobody would. And so.... no Twinkies for anybody. That is, unless some foreign entity purchases the rights, produces them overseas, and then ships them back in.

Unions have outlived their usefulness because it's a GLOBAL market.

If they employees could have been replaced so easily, they could have hired scabs. Of course then they wouldn't be able to blame the union for their closing and get out of severance packages and unemployment insurance for them. Face it, the union didn't drive this company out of business, the Capitalists exploited it out of business. They looted it and expected the employees put up with it for as long as possible. In the end, the company still would have closed. That's what happens when a company is run by people more concerned with how much money they can get out of a company than how to keep it operating.

It's not as easy as simply hiring scabs. If it was, unions could never pull off a strike.
This company was already in trouble, and they had made it very clear that the ONLY way it would survive is to trim its labor costs.

A liquidation has loomed large since Hostess's latest bankruptcy case kicked off in January. From the start, the company has warned that labor cuts were its only chance to survive.

Months of back-and-forth threats and court proceedings ultimately led to delivery-truck drivers and some plant workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to agree to deep concessions. But the bakers' union, known as the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, resisted.

In the end, a bankruptcy judge gave Hostess permission to force the bakers union to accept a new five-year labor contract that featured an 8% wage cut in the first year, new pension plan restrictions and a 17% increase in healthcare costs for employees.

The bakers' union went on strike. "Our members decided they were not going to take any more abuse from a company they have given so much to for so many years," said Frank Hurt, the bakers' union president, in a statement on Friday. Mr. Hurt didn't respond to requests for comment Friday.

The Teamsters on Friday stood by its decision to accept the cuts and criticized the bakers' union. "What we've seen in the past 24 hours is very clear proof that our advisers and our union was right," said Ken Hall, the Teamsters' treasurer and general secretary.

cont...Twinkie Maker Hostess to Close - WSJ.com

Regardless of whether there were bad players in the past, this was the LAST CHANCE for this business to be saved, and that fact was made clear to these unions. They chose instead to get a 100% decrease for their members, rather than take an 8% wage cut.

If they were serious about that, they wouldn't have given their CEO a 300% increase. Kind of hard to tighten your belt when your boss is eating his imported caviar right in front of you....

Funny I can't find it now, but they are giving $millions to the CEOs in bonuses and to the upper management. If they were so broke, how could they do that? The truth is this was a planned closure.

 

[kidrocks]

There... the truth, fair and balanced. The otherside of the story.




"Union bosses" and "Wall Street vultures" blamed for Hostess' demise - Political Eye - CBS News

Meanwhile the president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, released a statement calling the closure "a microcosm of what's wrong with America, as Bain-style Wall Street vultures make themselves rich by making America poor." Bain Capital is the asset management company founded by former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney that invested in faltering companies.

"Crony capitalism and consistently poor management drove Hostess into the ground, but its workers are paying the price," he said.