Hostess Brands to liquidate. Thanks, Big Labor!

Big Labor has killed the goose that laid the golden sponge cake:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Hostess Brands — the maker of such iconic baked goods as Twinkies, Devil Dogs and Wonder Bread — announced Friday that it is asking a federal bankruptcy court for permission to close its operations, blaming a strike by bakers protesting a new contract imposed on them.

The closing will result in Hostess’ nearly 18,500 workers losing their jobs as the company shuts 33 bakeries and 565 distribution centers nationwide. The bakers’ union represents around 5,000.

As the article notes, the brands are probably going to come back, at some point: somebody will want to buy the recipe and the trademark to, say, Twinkies.  But nobody’s going to buy the combination of the physical plant, recipe, trademark, and current labor contracts, so about 18,500 people are now hosed.  And that would be thanks to the greed of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union’s leadership, who apparently decided that they’d rather see their membership’s world burn.

20 thoughts on “Hostess Brands to liquidate. Thanks, Big Labor!”

  1. Out of the 18,500 workers who are losing their jobs, how many voted for Obama? How many will continue to vote for Democrats in the future?

    1. They told me if I voted for Romney, people would lose jobs and factories would close.

      And they were right!

      If I recall the last survey of union workers, around 60% vote Democrat, so I suspect this doesn’t cost the DNC many votes: the majority of those affected were loyal members, anyway, and all of them are now part of the exploitable underclass.

  2. And I’ve just seen somebody blame this on the company for not bending over farther.
    .
    *sigh*
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    Where are we going, and why are we all in this handbasket?

  5. Feel bad for the 13,500 folks who are now out of work ’cause of the union-workers’ greed. If I was in the position to, I would have scabbed to save Twinkies.

    1. I decline to join you, LiberExMachina, until you cite how many of those 13,500 were actually non-union.
      .
      The {copulating} Teamsters saw the writing on the wall and sided with the company, it was the bakers union that blew it.
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      I believe the appropriate quote is “Let them eat cake.”
      .
      Mew

      1. Frankly, I’m not sure; but those 13.5 K were smart enough to not strike in the middle of a bankruptcy. It is a shame that those folk are being punished for the bull-headed stupidity of 5 K.

        1. Interestingly, the 5k bakers are going to be out a lot longer .. bakeries as an industry are over capacity.
          .
          Teamsters (some of that 13.5k are Teamsters) are also overcapacity, but .. less so.
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          Do I think the bakers union is stupid and bull-headed? Derp! Of course!
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          Do I care that the others got crushed by their stupidity? Not really. Over 400,000 low-information voters stayed on couches on election day, and the price for that concerns me just a bit more.
          .
          Mew

          1. exactly how much “baking” is involved in a twinkie? I’m kinda under the impression that machines probably do 85% of the work.

          2. As someone who is looking at jail time ’cause of the blithering idiot bloc of voters (make too much money for Medicaid, don’t make enough money to afford private health insurance even if my employer was so inclined to offer me some), I am well aware of the price idiot voters are going to (indirectly) inflict on me. I am also aware that many of those people who lost their jobs over this participated in afflicting the plague of Obama on all of us. Do I feel so bad about the folks getting fired to actually DO anything other than express some hu-man empathy? No.

  6. Sharing the blame for this economic fiasco are the socialist/communist teachers in our schools, on our media, and in Hollywood who all depict capitalists and businesses as evil and greedy.
    I am just a working man too but I also expect to make a profit on my 401K investments. Why would anyone risk their money in an investment only to lose their money or just break even? American minds have been poisoned and deceived by our pop culture.

  8. I got a few boxes of the chocolate filled, seems everyone is going for the original. But how can chocolate ever be “lesser”?

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