The Day the Twinkie Died ~ 1500 strike . . . 18,500 get fired

[Leo]

Fewer jobs for dentists, Less people developing type II Diabetes, less people developing cornary artery desease. Think of all the medical professionals who will be out of work. I guess the fast food businesses will just have to step up to the plate and pull a little more of their share. What will the 420 community do?

Seriously, what a shame to have another large American company roll up the welcome mat.

 

[printcraft]

Coughcoughgovtbailoutchokecoughsnortwheezecough.

I'm going to start a petition at whitehouse.gov to save the Ding Dong.

obama will be all over it.

 

[Lammchop93]

I bet all those union workers who were on strike will be celebrating at the unemployment office.

 

[Kutnupe14]

The union leaders are part of the big picture to turn the USA into a 3rd world country...they are one of the reasons our jobs are shipped overseas. As for hostess the government does not want people eating snacks like that anyway.

So the free market enterprise of collective bargining will result in a third world country? I tell you what SC, Hostess placed themselves in that position. They made an offer to employees, allowed them to unionize, and it was accepted. If anything, Hostess made a series of bad business decisions, leading directly to their demise.

 

[iChokePeople]

I'm going to start a petition at whitehouse.gov to save the Ding Dong.

obama will be all over it.

If you gotta draw a line somewhere, I'd say it's just PAST the ding dongs. For the record, though, I think Mr. Clinton would have been a much better spokesperson for our ding dong other cream-filled treats movement.

 

[Naptown]

damn. Add it to the list of things I'll miss. Although I probably haven't eaten one in 10+ years.

 

[DC47374]

Can't really blame it on the strike. It was only a matter of time.

Of course you can blame it on the strike. Unions are outdated antiquities of the Industrial Revolution. They have no real power anymore, because they have no mandate. Their original intent was to get safer working conditions and better wages for employees. That is now all government controlled now. Unions are just another form Socialism, when it is all said and done.

 

[DC47374]

Coughcoughgovtbailoutchokecoughsnortwheezecough.

The Twinkie MUST NOT fail !!

 

[Classic]

2 of those chocolate cupcakes and a big glass of cold milk. Perfect midnight snack!

 

[Classic]

Next headline:
Obama nationalizes Hostess.

 

[steve666]

 

[ghuns]

How many people immediately thought of Zombieland?

My first thought

 

[bobzilla]

.. The day.... the twwiiiiinnkie died, and we were singing....
bye, bye mis American cake.
You're filled with creme and you taste just right.
Them good ol' boys were eating twinkies and pies.....
Sayin' this'll be the day that I die.

 

[Kutnupe14]

Of course you can blame it on the strike. Unions are outdated antiquities of the Industrial Revolution. They have no real power anymore, because they have no mandate. Their original intent was to get safer working conditions and better wages for employees. That is now all government controlled now. Unions are just another form Socialism, when it is all said and done.

They just made a company pack it up after 80+ years of existence. That power seems real enough to me.

 

[melensdad]

. . . They made an offer to employees, allowed them to unionize, and it was accepted. . .

Allowed them to unionize? How do you stop them from doing it?

Maybe they're not actual union employees out there picketing. They may have outsourced that function to non-union protesters.

That is a very common practice. Unions typically will hire non-union protestors and pay them below union scale to picket. Been done before. Will be done again.

I am not arguing that the unions did not have a major impact on the doors shutting... because if they took pay cuts, they might remain open for a bit longer.

However, to blame it all on unions wanting to retain the same wage they already received - while completely overlooking how company administration pushed the company into the red in the first place is somewhat misleading.

During times of war and recessions, junk food sales often increase. If a business is competitive, and cards are played right - they can often do even better in a downed economy. This was not the case with Hostess.

It sounds horrible, but when a company cannot remain competitive - their niche in the market will be filled by someone else. In this case, if Hostess is not bought and re-tooled from the ground up, local bakeries will be more than happy to churn out more junk food.

You realize that not everything they made was junk food? They also baked bread, buns, etc? Their brands included Hostess, Wonder Bread, Nature's Pride, Beefsteak, Home Pride, Dolly Madison and a few other brands. There were not a "niche" player but rather covered the full range from snacks to low priced breads and also premium breads.

Not trying to be a jerk, but you don't do your argument any favors with the twice in three years argument. 2004 and 2012 are the bankruptcies.

I'm not saying it wasn't mismanaged, because it takes two sides to agree on a union contract. It's just hard to wade through everything that both sides are putting out in order to find the truth.

Having been on the management side of a stike, I can tell you that sometimes you agree to the union demands to save the company from immediate bankruptcy only to buy time to try to figure out how to save the company long term, only to find that the union contract leads to a slow bleeding of resources that eventually take the company over the brink a few years later.

 

[hooky]

It's not that hard to find the truth. The company was not in a position financially to keep its doors open, whatever the reasons, and some of the employees would rather see the company go out of business and be out of jobs themselves than make any concessions in their compensation packages in an effort to help the company stay open for business.

So what exactly is the truth? I ask because both sides are saying things that aren't true and I'm not invested enough to wade through all the BS.

 

[Classic]

Absent the strike Wonder would still be in business tomorrow. No telling what would have happened to them in the future but the strike was the kill shot.

 

[spec4]

A parasite attaches to its host and kills it. Hmmm...

 

[Kutnupe14]

Allowed them to unionize? How do you stop them from doing it?

You fire them, but if one is so foolish to draw up terms that grants them "teeth," well, that's a poor business model.

 

[Kutnupe14]

A parasite attaches to its host and kills it. Hmmm...

It's more like suicide if the host allows the parasite to attach.