Unions killed the fucking Twinkie, assholes!

Unions suck the life out of America!

the good thing is that there will be Twinkie's on the shelves for many years to come.

"the good thing is that there will be Twinkie's on the shelves for many years to come."

Thank God!

--Crisco Christie

So... Zombie Hunters is now fantasy....

So... Zombie Hunters is now fantasy....

Posted by AndreaMackris at 2012-01-11 05:06 PM | Reply

the good thing is that there will be Twinkie's on the shelves for many years to come.

#3

#7 shit! i've got some 5-year old Twinkies in the cabinet that gots to go.

Better go out and buy up a Twinkies lifetime supply.

Rumor has it biodegration on those babies doesn't kick in until a packed it at least 123-years old.

no, dicknose, private equity, killed the twinkie!

but i'm not dead yet

Management running away with bonuses by creating unfunded liabilities and/or "investing poorly by accident". Its a universal modern business plan. Hired for your competence, you plead "I'm just stupid" and get away with millions. The fucking Government can make up the difference with pension insurance programs.

Twinkies, they aren't just bad for you, they taste like shit.

Obama killed the twinkie? Must of been the twinkie up economics?

"Thank God! I thought this said 'TwinkLes Maker'. I would have been SO devesthated!"

- Chairborne

AU,

Sorry, but that was pretty lame.

I mean no offense - just calling it like I see it.

Well that will free up 12,000 workers to man the fields and pick arugula.

Even as a kid I couldn't understand how anybody could eat Wonder Bread or any other bread made with bleached flour they all taste, go down and sit in your stomach like Elmer's Glue

Unions killed the fucking Twinkie, assholes!

#1 | Posted by fishpaw at 2012-01-11 04:13 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag:

Unions suck the life out of America!

#2 | Posted by Unclesam at 2012-01-11 04:23 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag:

"The baker, $860 million in debt, failed to reach an agreement with workers on pension and health benefits."

Yes, it must have been the unions fault that the management leveraged themselves to the tune of nearly a BILLION DOLLARS!

It must be so hard to find new labor who can make Twinkies..pfft.

Read the Teamsters Statement on the Hostess Bankruptcy

Union Represents More than 7,500 Delivery Drivers, Merchandisers Today's bankruptcy filing by Hostess Brands Inc. marks another sad development in the company's difficult history since its initial bankruptcy filing in late 2004, the Teamsters Union said.

The company emerged from that bankruptcy in 2009, largely due to the sacrifices made by Teamster members and other unionized employees, including members of the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers Union. More than 7,500 of the company's nationwide fleet of delivery drivers and merchandisers are Teamsters.

The Teamsters National Bargaining Committee has been working with Hostess management for months to identify a consensual resolution that would address the company's many problems.

"While no agreement has been reached to date, the Teamsters Union remains committed to working with all stakeholders during the bankruptcy to find a mutually agreeable solution, if possible," said Dennis Raymond, Director of the Teamsters Bakery and Laundry Conference.

"Our members have already given at the well, and this time it will take sacrifices among all parties" management, lenders, equity holders and employees to restructure Hostess into a viable enterprise that is well-positioned for future growth,Raymond said. We were hoping that could have been done prior to a bankruptcy filing, but unfortunately that did not occur. We remain committed to finding a solution, if possible, over the next few months during the bankruptcy process.”

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York. In a Chapter 11 filing, the debtor seeks to restructure so it can eventually exit bankruptcy with an approved plan of reorganization. The time that a company has to develop its plan of reorganization varies and is dependent on financing the company arranges to fund its stay in bankruptcy.

Unions and the Obama administration policies are destroying this nation.

Get the hell out of NY and relocate to a southern right to work state.

Even as a kid I couldn't understand how anybody could eat Wonder Bread or any other bread made with bleached flour they all taste, go down and sit in your stomach like Elmer's Glue

"Unions and the Obama administration policies are destroying this nation."

You're a moron. This employer didn't fully fund the pension & health plans. The workers fulfilled their part of the contract, and the owners are going belly up, having taken over 3/4ths of a billion dollars owed the workers with them.

Two sides entered a contract, one side kept its promises, and you want to shit on them.

Yes, it must have been the unions fault that the management leveraged themselves to the tune of nearly a BILLION DOLLARS!
It must be so hard to find new labor who can make Twinkies..pfft.
#17 | POSTED BY COMMONSENSE

Whether or not it's management's fault, they had no other choice but to take a cut or lose their jobs. They made a dumb decision. In this job market, they'll be lucky to find a job again.

Dan,
Unions wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the state propping them up with anti 'union busting' laws. So at square one, the employers basically have a knife and the unions have a gun. What you call negotiations most everyone else calls extortion.

I posted this because it got attitude,

From Obesity to Unions, Hostess Brands is Everything That's Wrong With America

Hostess seems to define everything that's unhealthy in America right now. Bad financial choices, bad food, bad management.

Hostess sold $2.5 billion worth of snack products and breads last year, but sales of Twinkies, the company's signature product, fell by 2%. Soft Twinkie sales haven't brought the company down, however. The Wall Street Journal cites high labor costs for employees who are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, high costs for staple ingredients, and poor market share for new, healthier baked products such as Nature's Pride whole grain breads.

Hostess' seemingly inevitable demise as justifiable, considering the unhealthiness and deceptive nature of the Twinkie and many other similar Hostess products.

Hostess' problems - unwise spending; overoptimistic sales projections; over-generous union contracts and pension obligations; and public disenchantment with hydrogenated fat, superfine sugar, and cellulose fiber advertised as "cream" - all sound an awful lot like America's problems in general right now.

Tim Collins , ripplewood holdings.....google-ize it -= remember readers digest? Opel?

word is they (prolly those damn onion workers thought of it) wanted to put the same "long shelf life enzymes" that are in twinkies into the wonderbread and therefore allow consolidation ofbakeries...customers revolted by not buying it anymore....until that plan was scrapped. IBC is a typical Baker's story of upward consolidation - mergers - public -bankrupt - - private - bankrupt - gov bailout...

#23 | Posted by Ray

Yep.

They negotiated for (and kudos to them) and received lavish overall compensation relative to their competitors.

While I certainly understand and empathize, if not downright sympathize with, those who accepted employment based upon up-front agreed-upon terms. However, if said terms renders the employer uncompetitive to the point of renegotiating said terms or closing doors and firing everybody...I would like to think that surrendering some of what was promised is preferable to sticking it to the man and bankrupting the company and thus getting NOTHING.

Is less better than nothing?

..

The privately held company said it had made efforts to sell its businesses and other M&A alternatives, including reaching out to companies like Smuckers, Kraft, Blackrock, KKR and others without any success.

Hostess, founded in 1930, operates around 36 bakeries and employs about 19,000 people, a majority of whom are members of 12 unions.

"We remain hopeful that we can reach an agreement that will allow us to amend our labor contracts so that we can emerge from Chapter 11 as a highly competitive company that provides secure jobs for our employees," Chief Executive Brian Driscoll said in a statement.

Hostess, formerly known as Interstate Bakeries Corp, had first filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004 in Missouri and emerged from it in February 2009 with private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings and other lenders taking control.

speaking of onions and such what about catepillar's loco subsidiary closing the London Ontario plant (ex EMD/GM) after proposing a 55 percent pay cut to the workers?...Rumour is they want to move all production to a third world area where the workers are eager to work for 15 an hour,,,,Muncie, IN,,,,former home of the employers of 9000 transmission builders (Chrysler & Borg Warner)....London has been in lock out since Jan 1....Meanwhile Prosperous GE continues to pay productive workers in Erie PA double that and meanwhile continues to rule the worldwide Loco market....

Riplewood is far from bankrupt - just one of their holdings is hitting the skids again after major restructure a mere few years ago...I suppose if we all work for free all corporations could be profitable....

#28 | Posted by redlightrobot

Well that didn't take long. It's Bush's fault.

With out Unions there would be no employee benefits. 50% of walmart's employees are part time and recieve no benefits. Most of our small businesses today in the US don't offer any benefits either. No benefits = no insurance.

32 | Posted by truthteller101

Truthteller? really

For one thing, part-time workers who make up 25 percent of Wal-Mart's workforce are not eligible until after two years. Then there is the cost. Wal-Mart pays 67 percent of the cost of health insurance for employees, about equal to the retail industry average of 68 percent for family coverage-but, for individual health insurance, far below the 77 percent that retailers contribute on average.

Many employees opt out because they are otherwise covered. The company says that two-thirds of its employees are second-income providers, college students, and senior citizens. Many of these have health insurance through their spouse's employer, parent's plan, or retirement and Medicare programs. Thus about 40 percent of the company's workers are covered apart from Wal-Mart's plan.

Hence the company asserts that close to 90 percent of its employees have health insurance by one means or another. Deductibles are $1,000 for a plan with a low premium, which does not include routine treatments such as flu shots and child vaccinations. Wal-Mart's health insurance emphasizes protection for catastrophic health expenses such as cancer treatment.

Most manufacturing has already left the US. After all you can have it made in china for around .25 cents per hour wages,no benefits,no labor problems. So why pay the wages here?

It was just on the news walmart not offering benefits to part time workers...which make up over half there employees...

Your answer is what, nuke China, or US tariffs and nuke us?

#35 | Posted by truthteller101

No one offer insurance or 401k's to part time until they have been there for a while. Wal-Mart said two years according to the above article. Seems reasonable to me.

After trying to mollify its critics in recent years by offering better health care benefits to its employees, Wal-Mart is substantially rolling back coverage for part-time workers and significantly raising premiums for many full-time staff.

Related
Wal-Mart Says More Than Half Its Workers Have Its Health Insurance (January 23, 2008)
Times Topic: Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
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A spokesman for Wal-Mart said the company had to revamp its health care offerings for workers because of rising costs.
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Citing rising costs, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, told its employees this week that all future part-time employees who work less than 24 hours a week on average will no longer qualify for any of the company’s health insurance plans.

In addition, any new employees who average 24 hours to 33 hours a week will no longer be able to include a spouse as part of their health care plan, although children can still be covered.

This is a big shift from just a few years ago when Wal-Mart expanded coverage for employees and their families after facing criticism because so many of its 1.4 million workers could not afford or did not qualify for coverage

No health care big business and the american way!

I use to work for this company right out of college. The management was always too big off pussies to get rid of the union drivers. We actually had a non union branch that was the number one sales branch in the Midwest and was very profitable for both the company and us drivers. We worked our asses off however made twice what the union drivers made. The reason being is we worked on 100 % commission and viewed ourselves as salesmen not just a fucking driver dumping off a load. Of course when the union and the management figured out how much we were making they just knew that union labor could do it for the company cheaper. They switched us over, most of us left and sales were cut in half. This was 20 years ago. They refused to evolve, therefore they died.

Even as a kid I couldn't understand how anybody could eat Wonder Bread or any other bread made with bleached flour they all taste, go down and sit in your stomach like Elmer's Glue

#21 | Posted by Gimme_a_Scotch

Bears repeating.

If you eat Wonder bread, you should not be wondering why you are unhealthy. Maybe they should try putting some wheat in their bread and a lot less sugar.

The times they be a changin and if you aint changin with them, you be goin down.

Adapt or die. Hostess chose the latter.

Unions and the Obama administration policies are destroying this nation.

#19 | POSTED BY PATRIOTWOMAN23 AT 2012-01-11 08:20 PM | REPLY | FLAG:

Get the hell out of NY and relocate to a southern right to work state.

#20 | POSTED BY PANEOCON AT 2012-01-11 08:21 PM | REPLY | FLAG:

Hostess brands filed for bankruptcy before. It's a poorly run company. It's telling that you blame Obama and unions reflexively. They're in Texas PaNeoHack:

But over the last several years, concerns grew that the baked goods might outlive the 82-year old company itself. In 2004, confronted with escalating labor costs and fluctuating prices of flour and other ingredients, the company filed for Chapter 11. Hostess, then known as the Interstate Bakeries Corporation, completed the restructuring process in February 2009

Our headquarters moved to Irving, Texas in 2009 and we became Hostess Brands. The operations center is in Kansas City, Missouri.

AT LAST..

a business that is getting FUCKED over by unions that all of us might rail against them for.

COME ON LIBFUX....surely you arent going to let

UNIONS TAKE AWAY YOUR DINGDONGS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, wonder where the investments went that was made by management that is causing the problem.

Dunno Money...maybe call Tim up and ask?

Ripplewood Investments LLC
1 Rockefeller Plaza
32nd Floor
New York, NY 10020
United States
Founded in 1995

Phone: 212-582-6700
Fax: 212-582-4110

Even as a kid I couldn't understand how anybody could eat Wonder Bread or any other bread made with bleached flour they all taste, go down and sit in your stomach like Elmer's Glue.

THIS.

Wonder Bread *is* gross.

Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho-Hos are also a blight on the junk food landscape.

Spud loves junk food, practically lives on the stuff, but not that stuff.

Hostess failed because they are a poorly run company and because their products are too gross to compete in today's more health conscious market.

Blaming unions for it's demise is a cheap and obvious shot as predictable as dawn.

Be Well.

bail out time.