Days of the Twinkie may be numbered

how zen is that...

<I just puked a little in my mouth>

@Rockhead,

Rockhead wrote:

how zen is that...

<I just puked a little in my mouth>

Very..the imparitive is to be in tune with the universe, and if one refuses then the universe applies pain until such time as compliance is surrendered. Everyone at hostess acted like they could play there crappy power games and amass more and more wealth irrespective of what was going on in the universe around them...in this case how many people bought their product. Eventually the scheme collapsed and now massive plain for failure to get it right is applied. We should cheer justice, not be crying for the saps.

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you so don't get it...

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@Ceili,

Because they want to stay employed?

Granted Hostess managment was terrible, but how did the worker win by not biting the bullet?

This is born of the silly ass notion our kids are being taught in school about fairness.

Self-interest doesn't need to be defined, but fairness does.

Is it fair that the CEO made what he made and employees suffered what they suffered? Probably not but who cares?

A position based on this sentiment led to the end of the company and unemployment for the workers...but they were right!

Unfortunately for these Union workers, their Union doesn't have the funds necessary to preserve their standard of living for enough time for them to get new jobs, (it was all spend on the Obama campaign) but who cares? Fairness won!

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@Finn dAbuzz,

Keep up with the news Finn. They bit the bullet on several occasions. When exactly did management do the same?

I'm not a big fan of unions, but when the workers continually get fucked... I don't blame them for taking a stand. They'd taken concessions, when did management do the same?

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@Ceili,

Shared sacrifice is an ideal, however self interest and righteousness is not glued to it.

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@hawkeye10,

"i vote to end my job because those guys over there are not sacrificing enough!" is a weak argument, and one that I have not heard from a former hostess employee. much better, and an argument that i have heard from several former hostess employees is "there was nothing to sacrifice for, there has not in a decade been a credible road map to success, and no one is looking for one now".

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

The union that brought the 85-year-old baker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread to its knees is holding out hope that a buyer will salvage chunks of the company and send the union's members back to work, even as Hostess Brands Inc. gears up for a fire sale.

Hostess, the company behind treats snacked on for generations, is poised on Monday to present to a federal bankruptcy judge a plan to shut down 36 plants and sell off the company's business. The liquidation was sparked by a nationwide strike orchestrated by the snack maker's second-largest union, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers.

While Hostess has said the shutdown would result in the loss of more than 18,000 jobs and place the fate of more than 30 American brands in jeopardy, union President Frank Hurt said he believed there was "more than a good chance" that a buyer quickly would swoop in to buy the profitable parts of the company and give his union's members their jobs back.

"I'm not in a position to promise anybody anything, but I'm in a position to be hopeful," he said Sunday.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323622904578127281230173980.html

delusional much?

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@hawkeye10,

'Fraid so. There's an excellent chance that a buyer, or buyers will indeed buy up the brands. There is zero chance it, or they will also pick up the workers that at least contributed to the shutdown. If there's a surplus of plant and equipment, there is also quite likely a surplus of employees out there.

For another look at the baking industry, look at Bama Pies in Tulsa. They were in the business of making fried pies at a time when the word 'fried' was becoming a retail death sentence. Maybe they still fry some pies, but they also became the suplier of biscuits to McDonalds, at least in the contiguous 48. I do not know what their CEO gets in salary.

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@roger,

Quote:

"I try to stay connected to what is going on in the world," she said. "You have to adapt to the changing situations all the time, but I would say my core values and principles have never changed. Our mission is people helping people be successful. That's been my mantra since 1985."

She calls her leadership style "very participative" - letting other people make decisions while she makes recommendations. She believes in getting people together in teams to talk about and think through problems.

It's about caring and respecting employees, having conversations and asking for input - and not just sitting and staring at computer screens all day.

"When you focus on just numbers and people cease to be important in the equation, you get disaster," Marshall said. "Our country is full of people that are disengaged in their work and don't really care. So we have a big problem. We've got to re-engage people ... and not be afraid to step into the workplace and be vulnerable as managers."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleid=20120401_46_E5_CUTLIN24670

the ceo of bama pies inc make them sound like the anti-hostess....

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The most that i can observe about Finn, other than his obsesson with attempting to get a rise out of people, is that if anyone should know about spleen, he's the one, the very poster boy.

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Did Congress kill the Twinkie? The tariff tale behind the Hostess demise.(+video)
Since 1934, Congress has supported sugar trade tariffs. In a sign of the power of the sugar lobby, Hostess picked unions, not the lobby, to fight when it had to cut costs to stay in business.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2012/1116/Did-Congress-kill-the-Twinkie-The-tariff-tale-behind-the-Hostess-demise.-video

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@tsarstepan,

Unions really need to start negotiating into their contracts that raising the CEO's compensation automatically triggers a raise for the rest of the employees.

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@tsarstepan,

i was reading the argument that high sugar prices where a big problem. I have also read that bimbo would if they buy it make everything in their mexican plants to take advantage of cheap sugar. I dont buy the bimbo theory, I think that added transit costs and decreased shelf life thus more throw away due to added transit times would eat all of that savings plus more (indicated by the fact that apparently bimbo still makes most of entenmanns in the USA even though they dont have too). I also dont buy that sugar prices where a problem for hostess...they were losing market share to companies such a mckee foods and flowers foods who make their products in the USA with USA priced sugar, hostess had no sugar price disadvantage. what we are seeing here is a long running lobbying effort to get rid of the sugar tarrif latching onto the the death of hostess to push their agenda by way off telling lies, and "journalists" who are stupid enough to help them do it.

btw another argument that i do not buy is that the ill health and then death of hostess was preordained by the alleged new american aversion unhealthy food. this is argument is being made even as the food nazis are making the opposite arguement about the choices of individuals as they make their call for more government regulation of our food choices. i am aware of no evidence that americans will not buy high sugar high fat food, I think that hostess's problem was more that their high sugar high fat food was no longer good enough after they ruined recipes to save money and after their competitors did a better job of adapting to changing taste prefferences.

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@DrewDad,

Unions are not usually partners in the business, except some like GM and Chrysler.

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@roger,

roger wrote:

Unions are not usually partners in the business, except some like GM and Chrysler.

you can be a partner without being in the ownership structure...anyone working towards the success of the enterprise is a partner, and it is in labors best interest to be one.

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For those who are worried about being Twinkie-less.

@CNBC: BREAKING: Hostess & Bakers Union agree to mediation, preventing shut down.

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@JPB,

I thought it was past that. If they could revive Hostess, I think it would be for the best, for all concerned.

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@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

Unions really need to start negotiating into their contracts that raising the CEO's compensation automatically triggers a raise for the rest of the employees.

I used to work at a company where the union contract stipulated that whatever the union got all non-union employees got as well. Pretty much anything can be put into a contract.

thank you teamsters for getting birthday days off for the counselling staff !

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@EB: Especially the fat people at grocery stores. I wish I was kidding, but I observed one today telling a clerk of her "emergency".

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Days of the Twinkie may be numbered

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