Twinkies Maker Will Close After Strike

ABC News ^ | 16 November 2012 | JEANETTE TORRES and BILL McGUIRE

[RabidBartender]

Hostess Brands Inc., the maker of the iconic snack, announced today that it will liquidate the entire company because not enough striking employees returned to work by a Thursday evening deadline set by the company.

"We deeply regret the necessity of today's decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike," said Gregory F. Rayburn, chief executive officer. "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."

Hostess said it will seek bankruptcy court permission to close its business and sell its assets, "including its iconic brands and facilities. Bakery operations have been suspended at all plants."

"The Board of Directors authorized the wind down of Hostess Brands to preserve and maximize the value of the estate after one of the Company's largest unions, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), initiated a nationwide strike that crippled the Company's ability to produce and deliver products at multiple facilities," the company said in a statement.

"We simply do not have the financial resources to survive an ongoing national strike," Rayburn said in a statement Wednesday. "Therefore, if sufficient employees do not return to work by 5 p.m., EST, on Thursday to restore normal operations, we will be forced to immediately move to liquidate the entire company, which will result in the loss of nearly 18,000 jobs."

More at link

[RabidBartender]

If I heard it correctly on the radio yesterday, the real tragedy is that over 10,000 of the Hostess employees being laid off aren’t even union guys.

[ejonesie22]

Well he got a fair contract I guess. He can ask for whatever he wants now with no repercussions from management...

[Smokin' Joe]

I just wish they'd move to a right-to-work state. I'd bet people would move there to get a job.

(Like they did to ND to work in the oil patch and a host of spinoff jobs in just about every sector but 'union organizer'.)

[Vince Ferrer]

There are a lot of non union people that lost their jobs, but your pictures warmed my heart a little.

[NewsJunqui]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Bimbo Bakeries from Mexico buys up Hostess.

[grobdriver]

So how'd that strike work out for ya, moron?

And put that cap on straight!

[a real Sheila]

I say the 10,000 need to hunt down the union thugs and deliver a good, long-deserved thumping.

[jughandle]

Great job, union. 18,000 of your members out of work now but at least you showed them! And they all think its the company’s fault.

[RabidBartender]

Yeah, I get a little schadenfreude in the morning sometimes.

"SOLIDARITY....SOLIDARI.....wait, Hostess did what this morning?"

[Charles Martel]

Twinkie the Kid, gut-shot by the local bakers' union and left alongside the road to die.

He'll have his revenge, though... and right soon. Too bad the union bosses won't feel his wrath.

[Alberta's Child]

My understanding is that 5,000 of the 18,000 employees are members of this bakers' union. The Teamsters -- who ratified the new labor agreement -- also represent a number of other employees, but I'm not sure of the exact number.

Lessons learned here, folks: (1) don't ever vote to allow a union to represent you, and (2) if you work for a company with a lot of union members in critical positions, look for a job elsewhere.

I'm not even suggesting that unions are all bad here, but there's no getting around the fact that a worker loses a lot of control over his/her future when a union is involved -- even if they don't belong to the union.

[RabidBartender]

"At least I got a snazzy little orange vest out of this!"

[silverleaf]

better than some Chinese bakery making twinkies out of reprocessed human hair and dog fat

[Popman]

Most of their employees work in plants...you just can’t move a facility to a nkn work state....they have 20 plus bakery plants across the country

[MayflowerMadam]

I hope these losers are getting all kinds of warm fuzzies from their perverted camaradarie now. It’s gonna be a long, cold winter and faux warm fuzzies is all they’ll have. How stupid are they — in this economy? Their union bosses are pointing and laughing at them. They don’t see the strikers as people, but tools (in every sense of the word) to further their commie cause and inflate the bosses’ bank accounts. Pathetic.

[MomwithHope]

guess that twinkie in Wall-E was REALLY old!!

[greedo]

You peel off the coconut layer and eat the little cake first.

Thanks to the union, an entire new generation of stoners
will not be able to do this.

[AD from SpringBay]

I saw a crawler on FOX or CNBC this morning where some union nutjub said the employees would be better off on unemployment.

That's a popular conclusion. It is short sighted, but popular.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Tallahassee: [discovers Hostess truck filled with Sno-Balls] Sno-Balls? Sno-Balls? SNO-BALLS? Where's the @#$%ing Twinkies -- ?!?

Columbus: I love Sno-Balls.

Tallahassee: I hate coconut. Not the taste, consistency.

Columbus: [eats a Sno-Ball] Fresh.

Tallahassee: [grimly] Oh, this Twinkie thing. It ain't over yet.

-- Zombieland (2009)

[hoagy62]

Last night, I was at the store. Just out of curiosity, I went to thr bakery aisle. All the Twinkies...GONE. I guess people figured “Never gonna see ‘em again, might as well get my last box”.

Heck...even Zingers are going away (even though I remember them as Dolly Madison but Hostess bought up DM years ago).