Death of Twinkies on hold as judge tries to save Hostess jobs

And you wonder why this company goes belly up…

Sounds like a job( Profitable ) for Bain Capitol.

If I was senior management with no future at Hostess, no bonus to stick around, I would be gone the instant I get a better offer. Or sooner so as to devote my full effort to my future. Hostess is the past.

union workers had already agreed to a series of concessions over the years and the company had failed to invest in brand marketing and modernization of plants and trucks, instead focusing on enriching owners such as private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings and hedge funds Silver Point Capital and Monarch Alternative Capital.

Officials at the three firms declined to comment.

——

‘Nuff Said.

Near as I can figure, the previous bunch of corporate heads made sure to give themselves huge salary raises. Then they moved on, and the current bunch of corporate raiders/vultures, er hedge and private equity funds, moved in. They then offered to cut pensions, an 8% cut in salary, and reduction in what they would pay for workers health benefits. The current CEO pays himself nearly $1.5M and is considered a turnaround guy (eg. prop a company up and sell the carcass for all you can get guy). He then comes on and blames the workers for not accepting his generous offer, and he has to, surprise surprise, unfortunately close down the factory. Then they will sell of the Twinkie and Wonder brands for boatloads of cash, and lament about how the American unions are the cause of their problems. This my friends is American business at its finest. Wouldn’t Willard be proud.

Well now a big fat envelope full of cash with a pack of Twinkies in the mediator’s lunchbox might just save 18,500 jobs.

Yay! I was afraid we might have to petition the gov’t for a Twinkie Bailout. :D

At this point, it’s the only sensible thing to do. it is ridiculous to close the doors, and lay off 18,000, for either side.

I can bet you if my company is going out of business, there will be no bonuses. Let those people find jobs with the rest of the employees. Hostess is losing money becuase finally people are waking up to why we have an obesity crisis in America. I don’t know anyone who can honestly say a Twinkie tastes good. They are one of the nastiest packaged snacks ever created. I remember the Ho Ho’s being good, but as an informed adult now, I’m not eating anything that lasts for weeks with ingredients that appear to be in a foreign language with enough sugar and fat to throw an elephant into anemia. Hopefully one day, fast food restaurants will fold so we can get back to healthy eating.

We should have never de-regulated the baking industry.

fire them all. there are plenty of unemployed people who would love a blue collar job paying $18-$20 an hour with benefits.

Hostess will win this. “It is my company, if I do not want it to be unionized I woll fold it”. I did this and ran my business for 15 more yeas with out the union. They will too. I did fold it this time about 2 weeks ago, I will NOT pay obamacare or his tax bill. I am not alone-obviously. Clifornia will be completely bust and under the control of the drug cartels in less than 5 years because of these stupid liberals…ok with me.

Let it die …

The jobs are garbage.

The rich hedge funds sell poison and haven’t invested in the product or factories (how come Twinkies aren’t organic? how come they are made with the same main ingredient found in dry wall?)

It’s toxic waste owned by those that don’t care or only care about more money, sold to those too stupid to know better and made by those that either too lazy to get an education and get a better job.

Please go away.

@totherepublic

Excellent, our evil plot to take over California is working, Booo Ha Ha Ha, Booo Ha Ha Ha.

throughout human history to cover up their failures those in charge used various methods to create an enemy the populace can rail against, most notable excuse going to war. today’s bogeyman is the ‘greedy rich’. nothing new to see here…

@totherepublic, If you are one of those business owners that do not care about the health/well being of their employees (I have serious doubts as to the truthfulness to your ‘stories’), then good riddance you are the type of ‘job creator’ we do not need. On the other hand there are many employers, such as my company, that do very well (record revenues this year) even by paying 100% of their employee health insurance plan. Join us in the future or fall behind, it appears as if you have chosen the fall behind idea though, o well. Some species evolve while others just die off.

This may one of the few times that the Labor Union has it right. Only 7% of all private jobs in the U.S. are unionized. Unions killed of the Steel Industry and damn near destroyed the Auto industry…and who could ever forget the Air Traffic Controllers. But the union is thius case and their members already agreed top huge concessions. It’s the Venture Capitalists that are kinking this deal. Only 5000 of the almost 19,000 employees at Hostess are unionized. But in this rare case..it is the minority union that may save the jobs. They stood up to Wall Street!!

No matter how you look at it – the Union clearly did a good job with protecting the workers!

Rich_F..that post was bizarre even compared to your normal comments. Just say no to drugs brother!

Save the Twinkie!

The Union won, hurray! Just 18,000 jobs on the brink of being lost

So, here’s the two things that I see: 1. its a business decision. If the business isn’t performing, put a bullet in it. 2. 18k jobs could be lost. As an employer of so many jobs the lines get blurred. Nice to see there isn’t a quick and easy decision here however, what happens during this debate? No production for the company and no wages for the employees. Let’s say it takes a month to figure out what they’re doing and eventually everyone goes back to work. Who absorbs that? The employees who were forced to not work or hostess who obviously is saying they aren’t making money so that would only increase the burden of staying in business…. Love to hear some input on people who know more details than I. This was just my immediate impression of the news

I started working as a Teamster in a manufacturing company in the late 70s and eventually worked my way into a management position. I’ve been on both sides of the fence. So, I can speak from experience with absolute certainty that being in a Union is joke. They protect the slackers and will, given enough time cause the jobs the represent to evaporate.

You heard it here first:
Twinkies too big to fail!!(18,000 jobs?) The fed steps in and mediates, I mean hands half the ownership of the company to the unions. Sound familiar? We are already socialist when owners can’t liquidate their assets to preserve some value, and the government forces it to stay open and slowly bleed to death until there is no value. I guess our current version of nationalization goes directly to the unions…. And we signed up for another 4 years!!

Colorado and Washington just legalized pot for recreational use. If twinkles goes out of business, it will be the ultimate travesty of justice. This is too funny.

“So, I can speak from experience with absolute certainty that being in a Union is joke.”

I’ve been on both sides of the fence as well. I know a guy at my last job who was all UNION this and UNION that – but I asked him one day, why he was working at this little law firm with next to nothing for pay and not for the previous company with the Union?

He said his job had got cut.

I left it at that.

I don’t oppose the concept of a Union; I’m just against what the Unions have become – and they are just as bad as any corporation now. If the Union is so great; why do they donate large sums of cash to political candidates and ignore the plight of these workers…

I wonder what the baker’s union donated to political campaigns this year?

Best I can find is $180,000…

That’s 1,000 per worker; consider this money was ONLY political donations – nothing at all that would impact the Union itself directly.

The baker’s Union could have done their part and let the workers slide on $1,000.00 worth of Union dues for the year in return for taking a cut – on the agreement that Hostess over the next few years increase pay back to their current rate plus cost of living and such.

But no… the Union wouldn’t make that deal, would they? They are more than OK telling Hostess to pony up – but take it out of their own pockets???? No way That money was needed for political palm greasing!!!!!!!

But either way, in the end, the Union officials drive their Cadillacs home, the Executives drive their Cadillacs home – and the workers head to the soup kitchen.