No More Twinkies For You! November 16, 2012
Posted by Michael in News.trackback
Hostess Brands, an 82 year old company, is headquartered in my home town of Irving, TX. They also make Wonder Bread (a staple of my childhood), Ho Hos, and Ding Dongs.
Sad to say, they have collapsed, thanks in large part to their unions. Maybe somebody else will buy the brands, but in the meantime, 18,000 people are out of work.
I’m sure Michelle Obama approves. She thinks you shouldn’t be eating this stuff anyway.
No, do not eat these union-made poisonous and delicious confections.
Not everyone agrees with Michelle.
Try some arugula instead.
Hostess Brands Inc., the bankrupt maker of Wonder bread and Twinkies, said it will fire more than 18,000 workers and liquidate after a nationwide strike by bakery workers crippled operations.
“Companies in bankruptcy don’t have any margin for error,” Chief Executive Officer Gregory F. Rayburn said today in an interview with Betty Liu on “In the Loop” on Bloomberg Television. “We just didn’t have enough workers crossing the picket line.” . . . The decision to liquidate capped a weeklong standoff between the company, once the largest U.S. wholesale baker, and a union that called its proposed labor contract “horrendous.”
via Twinkie Maker Hostess to Shut Down After Strike – Businessweek.
I guess extended unemployment benefits and food stamps look pretty good to some people, compared to the “horrendous” alternative of working for a living.
Speaking of bread, I’ll bet you haven’t remembered this song in awhile:
Maybe somebody else will buy the brands, but in the meantime, 118,000 people are out of work.
…I think you mean “18,000.”
>> Maybe somebody else will buy the brands
No doubt at all, those brands have value and some other food company will buy them.
Thanks Geoff. Correction made.
Aside from the brands, Hostess is mothballing it’s bakeries all over the country to sell them off.
According to the Business Week article:
I’ll bet $20 right now, prior to googling, that Flowers Foods is non-union.
I’ve been trying all morning to get on the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union site, but it’s crashed. Apparently exceeded its bandwidth limit. I wanted to find out who the yahoos were who decided that Hostess management was lying about being up against the wall – I mean, even the Teamsters understood how precarious the situation was.
I’m betting the Teamsters, who lost a lot of jobs here, will have some pretty harsh words for the BCTGM guys come Monday. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a big change in the BCTGM’s leadership very soon.
Leonid shower tonight – 3 am EST in the eastern sky (I think that’s right, but you should probably check it).
Who is Leonid and why are you taking a shower with him?
mmmmm, Ho Hos, the sweet in my lunch bag for years, the snack my brother would find and devour, no matter where Mom hid it.
A group I work with just completed a building in a small mountain community. We dedicated the building and I wanted to make an inexpensive time capsule. My first choice to go in the capsule was a couple of twinkies. The capsule would have been dug up in 25 years. Now we’ll never know if the half-life of a twinkie was 12.5 years or greater.
I have not purchased a Hostess product in…geez. I can’t remember. Definitely over a decade. If I want sweets I can do better than that. I think that’s really what killed Hostess. These shelf-stable 1970′s treats can’t compete with the goodies in grocery-store bakeries, never mind Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks.
I am surprised and saddened by Laura’s abrupt and unseemly admission that she is not a true American.
If I want sweets I can do better than that.
Whoa. A red, white, and blue tear is rolling down my cheek.
Drake’s coffee cakes. OK? I would totally snarf down on one of those. That’s about it.
*crosses arms, turns back towards Laura*
Back when I was 12 they were ok. There’s a reason I haven’t eaten one in 40 years.
Remember those little chocolate cake bars that were shaped like Twinkies? If you tried hard, you could get a whole one in your mouth so you didn’t lose any to random crumbage.
What were those things called?
Must. Post. This:
Done, RG — added to post.
Can’t believe I forgot that.
Drake’s coffee cakes. OK? I would totally snarf down on one of those.
How…..European.
I find your patriotic ethnocentrism charming, but Drake’s cakes are a Hostess product.
Here geoff, you’re gonna need a balm for that burn.
Lauraw heaves a Ho Ho at your Po Po.
Drake’s cakes are a Hostess product.
ANY kind of coffee cake is European, and gay.
You are sposed to eat donuts with coffee. Along with the breakfast food of the gods, Honey Nut Cheerios™.
As an alternative, you can eat another American Classic breakfast — huevos rancheros with white corn tortillas and green tomatilla salsa. That’s what George Washington and Abraham Lincoln had for breakfast. I read that somewhere. Give me a few minutes to find the link.
Washington and Lincoln did NOT eat Messican food!
(I bought some Ho Hos today)
OK, you doubters, read and weep.
Here is the link I promised you!
Uh-huh.
Michael, how many fingers am I holding up?
*holds up a large orange traffic cone*
I hate to be the one to link Honey Nut Cheerios to latent guy love.
But please. The name says it all
Any of you that are Owned By Cats, get a Twinkie and break-off a bit with filling and cake.
Offer it to your cat.
Prepare to have the cat DEMAND the rest of the Twinkie.
It’s funny that the Teamsters had warned the bakers union; “Dudes, they’re not bluffing! We’ve seen their books!”
Yay, the 5,500 members of the bakers, or their union leaders, went for it anyway. Well, now you’ve won. Are you happy that 18,500 people have lost their jobs!
We’ve stashed a couple Twinkies in a drawer. We’ll probably eat them in another 20 years, or so, while I’m on my death-bed…
ANY kind of coffee cake is European, and gay.
Zackly.
I don’t know how to break this to you guys, but this whole country is European line. Hostess has no acorn mush based products in their repertoire. Thank goodness.
*chews piece of buffalo jerky*
chews the ear off a buffalo
this whole country is European line
Kung Pao chicken is European?
I heard that it was invented in Nebraska by the Lakota.
>>I don’t know how to break this to you guys, but this whole country is European line.
Um, no.
Twinkies were invented right here in the good ole US of A. Illinois. 1930.
But that’s not really important. What is important is that lw said:
I find your patriotic ethnocentrism charming
*puts on Rudolph nose, bounds around*
She thinks I’m charming! She thinks I’m charming!
*removes nose*
Tushar, certain ethic enclaves excepted! Hah!
Look, the whole wheat-based ‘cake’ idea, most of our food design, even ‘American’ food is really just a bastardization of the foods Euros developed earlier.
I’m not eating acorn mush and dried venison, and you can’t make me.
Well, actually the venison, yeah I’ll try that. With salt.
deer is dear
Well, actually the venison, yeah I’ll try that. With salt.
*burns Rudolph nose*
So what I’m really saying is that you’re all charming Euro bastards.
Except Tushar.
Laura, I agree with your larger point. But simply agreeing without any snark does not gel with the IB character.
So what I’m really saying is that you’re all charming Euro bastards.
There she goes again with that “charming” stuff.
And me with no nose.