Shame On The Gluttonous Bakery Union Members, Blasted Twinkie Killers

Forbes ^ | 11/22/2012 | Dr. Mark Hendrickson Grove City College

[SeekAndFind]

Drat! I’m bummed—saddened by the news that the Hostess company, home of the Twinkie and other venerable sugary snacks, is shutting down.

I’ll bet I haven’t eaten more than three or four Twinkies in the last 30 years, so the demise of Hostess doesn’t adversely impact my lifestyle. It’s just that, for baby boomers like me, the Twinkie has historic significance in popular culture. Being a kid in the ‘50s meant watching “The Mickey Mouse Club” and “The Lone Ranger” and snacking on Twinkies and Tootsie Rolls. Twinkies were as American as baseball. Now the company that makes them is facing liquidation. Why?

Because the bakery union wouldn’t agree to the concessions needed to keep their employer afloat. Look, I don’t wish lower wages on anybody, and having personally worked with great people in two unions (UAW and NEA), I have a natural sympathy for working men and women, but I can’t respect a union that would kill off the Twinkie and their own jobs due to a false sense of pride.

Hostess lost $341 million last year. The money for the compensation that the bakery union wanted simply wasn’t there. Even the Teamsters union, whom nobody would ever accuse of wimping out during contract talks, looked at Hostess’ books and acknowledged that the only way to keep the operation afloat would have been for workers to accept lower compensation.

The bakery union, however, would have none of it. They couldn’t have been so stupid as to misunderstand the simple arithmetic of Hostess’ financial predicament, so one can only conclude that they went berserk with ideological madness—“better to destroy the company than to make concessions to management” seems to have been their cold-hearted calculus.

[Jeff Winston]

I’m starting to wonder who actually eats Twinkies any more.

[traderrob6]

Companies are already lining up to buy the name, formulas and production facilities.

Too bad for the striking workers they’ll likely be non-union.

[FreeAtlanta]

I received this image. I don't know how much of it is true because leftist lie, but if any of it is, then I can understand some of the animosity from the workers.

Executives should be balanced in their rewards. If you own the company, then the skies the limit on what you reward yourself, but if you are just an executive, then excess is detrimental to your business.... well, excess can be detrimental if you are the owner, too, but that is your choice.

Is there a way to verify these numbers? ....wait, while reading back over this it doesn't make sense. Executives give themselves raises when the company is going out of business???? I think the image is lefty propaganda.

[econjack]

Too bad for the striking workers they’ll likely be non-union.

I have absolutely no sympathy for the union or its workers, at all. If you point a pistol at your foot, carefully look down the sight to make sure your foot's in the line of fire, and then pull the trigger, I say you pretty much got what you asked for. Idiots...

[Condor51]

Back in the 'good old days' that Bakers Union President would've wound up in a car trunk for screwing around with Hostess and putting Teamster Union members jobs in jeopardy. Then the new Bakers Union Pres would have negotiated in good faith.

Not that I condone violence or what the Mob did -- allegedly -- but sometimes an 'attitude adjustment' is needed in certain situations. This was one of them (IMHO).

[Beagle8U]

Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that a company that is in financial straights HAS to pay big bonuses to the top brass to keep them from leaving.

They have skills in high demand and can go anywhere.

The ‘union twinkies’ have few skills and are way overpaid for what they do.

[econjack]

I checked it out on Snopes, which said the salary increases were true...

but

After the Wall Street Journal wrote an article on the increases, those same executives cut their salaries to $1. This is what pisses me off about Snopes, which is a VERY left-leaning source of anything: They say the article is true, but then go on to say all the raises were given back and salaries reduced to $1. How can Snopes, with a straight face, say the article about executive pay raises is true, and then report they were recanted?

Moral: Don't trust Snopes for anything.

[Vendome]

Self serving jerkoffs.

They screwed themselves and about 9000 other people who will never, ever see their job come back.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

As usual, Forbes is totally wrong. The Hostess bakeries were pretty efficient. The problem was the Teamsters’ rules requiring multiple drivers, stockers, truck loaders, etc.

[bert]

Patience, patience.

The incident is fresh, recent. Time is required to plan and execute retaliation. The Baker’s Union chief might still be found trussed and dead in a car trunk.

Unlike Jimmy Hoffa, he will be found to assure the message is delivered.

[Vendome]

Uhmmm...total BS.

[madison10]

It wasn’t the “18,000 workers” that made Hostess close its doors. It was only around 5000 stubborn union members that killed the company and made the decision for the other 13,000.

Looks like lefty propaganda to me, too.

[soycd]

Even if the bosses gave themselves raises the fact remains that even if the bosses worked for free they would still have to take a cut.

Yes, it is disgusting that CEO etc can loot money but it’s no excuse to cut your own leg off.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Don’t be surprised if the federal government under Obammie the Commie step in and nationalize this company as a first step to nationalizing all food production.

“We must save the jobs of those good folks. And it’s an important American tradition.”

We will then see the ultimate use of propaganda as MoocherShelle, while pointing out which weeds someone needs to pull out of her “micro-farm,” tells the American people, “Yes, we need to eat healthier. But we all need a little treat in our lives. We need to nationalize the Twinkie company to ensure those treats are available to everyone.”

[sakic]

So, a failing company’s execs were taking huge bonuses while a company crashed and because they were exposed and changed their policy, I should laud the heads of the company? Great logic.

By the way, the company failed because the free market works. Even those lamenting the demise admit that they don’t even eat the product, yet they view this as a bad thing for America. Why?

[dfwgator]

Companies come, companies go, it has always been thus.

[FreeAtlanta]

I take anything from snopes with a grain of salt.

[fatnotlazy]

” Too bad for the striking workers they’ll likely be non-union.”

***

Too bad for the striking workers. They’ll likely not be hired by any new owners. The new owners might not want to hire any of them at all.

[Hardraade]

Well, they won’t be glutting much longer....