"Fire the management then let the bankruptcy trustee oversee the sale of assets rather than line the pockets of these corrupt and greedy bastards."

The trustee oversees the operational/financial activities anyways...

Its called CONGRESS Walk the picket line and hope the goverment bails out the twinkie....and or you...

Yet you won't complain about the fact that the union demand that insisted on "employing separate drivers for two different kinds of Hostess products rather than trucking them together."...What, Twinkies and Ding Dongs can't ride in the same truck???

looks like those dingdongs,sno balls and twinkies won't be"CUPCAKING IT" doing it with the HO HO'S & suzy Q's ,looks like managment phucked them all first !!!

Equity

You couldn't have read the article. That CEO was fired when it was known what he did.

You also missed that they need to drop the delivery system that is not inefficient, but the those are union jobs that would be lost.

As one person I know put it box of Hostess $5.00, competitors $3.50. You are on unemployment or a low paying job what are you going to do?

I think the Union needs to cool the jets a bit!

"Former CEO's head on a platter: board ousted Brian Driscoll in March, 2012, after it was revealed his salary was tripled to $2.5 million at the same time he demanded steep pay cuts for workers..."

And there in a nutshell is the problem.

Although it is true that the company was poorly managed, the company offer to have board of director seats filled by union leaders would have gone a long way in preventing future payouts on the level received by outgoing CEO Brian Driscoll.

The unions were being offered positions to be part of the solution going forward. The Teamsters agreed and the Bakers union did not. I think the Bakers union leadership did a pathetic job of laying out the choices that the membership had. Those choices were 8% pay cut for one year, and the following year, wages would reflect a 5% pay cut from current wages. Or, no job, unemployment and no benefits.

Union sympathizers can cry about poor management all they want, but unlike most negotiations, the company was allowing the unions to sit on the company board. An opportunity to monitor the moves of management in the most tranparent manner. Simply unbelievable.

Sounds like pretty generous concessions!

Leave it to the Corporate Unions to kill American jobs!

Those jobs do not require rocket scientists to do. They were decent jobs for people who really can't do to much more. Now they can go work at walmart and sell twinkies made in Mexico and sold by Bimbo. Any type of pension is unsustainable anymore for government or private business. For the workers get off your behind and go back to school and get some skills that the market needs. I am not a redneck or a republican, but 22 years ago this former bricklayer did go back and now this CPA makes a decent wage. This is the end game there is nothing more to be done and in the end there will be NO union jobs. You can blame management all you want but the workers have no cards to play.

Union supporters continue to claim that the inflated salaries of a few executives is more relevant than the inflated salaries of 18,000. If the average nonexecutive salary is roughly $20/hour, the total paid to their employees is $749 million dollars each year. A small 4% piece of this is $30 million per year. Go ahead union supporters, make up the $30 million dollar per year increase out of the executive salaries. Afterall, you make it sound like that's where the issue is....so find a way.

Saying nice things that sound good is just that. I hope the 6,000 union workers at Hostess feel good about making the rest unemployed. This selfish behavior should be illegal..........unions should be illegal. My only regret is that this did not happen 3 weeks ago, prior to the elction.

Wow, the union was quite reasonable. As a matter of fact, both parties were quite reasonable. Chuck does seem to have this right. This looks like an attempt at "venture capitalism" that backfired due to the union catching them with their hands in the cookie jar.

Pensions are not viable today? Really? Have you ever noticed that they all of a sudden became too expensive when the executive pay suddenly went up over 3000% in the past 30 years? Don't be an idiot. Pensions are very viable provided that these greedy executives stop trying to out-greed one another. Cut a CEO's pay in half and you can fund a pension for hundreds up to thousands depending on the figures.

The simple fact is that a 401k for example is a very bad alternative. What that does is lump all of America's retirement funds into a single location... the stock market. To kill the value of every American's saved money, simply crash the market and then flood money into the financial system. The rich prey upon those that panic and buy from people running with whatever they can salvage. After 5 years of rocky road, your 401k is worth the same dollar figure and the fact your money is worth about 1/2 of its original value is ignored because you have the same amount as you once had. Sound familiar?

Oh for crissake, sell Hostess to a company in a right to work state and let's get the Twinkies baking again!

Giving the union 25% of the company and 2 seats on the board! They would have had enough power to stop corporate executive greed and misconduct. The union should have taken the deal. A lot better than the alternative. You want fries with that sir. I can make great fries I used to make twinkies.

Looks to me like the damn teamsters got enough on the deal. Unions have turned into what they set out to stop in the beginning.

Unions from long ago really protected the employees. Today all the unions look out for are themselves. When will the employees wake up and realize this.

I hate wasteful spending. So many companies can thrive if only they cut out wasteful spending. The company's trucking set up is a joke.

Unions had their day and it is not today! Studies have indicated that after 10 years on the job "TAKE HOME PAY" differential between union workers and non union workers is the same for the same type of job. The only difference is that union workers put their companies at an economical disadvantage in the marketplace. This is what happened to Hostess. Two different trucks to deliver two different products to the same store????????????

Double the salary, double the cost of truck, gasoline, maintenance? Crazy union work rules. I worked for a construction company during college break and it was unionized. After three days on the job, union boss came over and told me "Hey KID! Don't work so hard, you are making the rest of us look bad!" I got my check at the end of the week and never went back.

twinkies and all these crappy chemical-laden convenience-store sweets can die, americans will be all the better for it. There's an obesity epidemic, let twinkies die, they have no taste, no nutritional value, and no redeeming qualities.

Hostess offered the Union a couple of seats and a piece of the cancerous pie after the damage done by the CEOs metastasized. Who wants a couple of seats on the CEO Express going down in flames? I can see why the Union would rather keep their pensions and no job than eventually lose both pension and job. Makes sense to me. Yes, Unions look out for themselves because CEOs only look out for themselves too. Dysfunctional Wall Street is proof of that! I can also see that this Union is willing to take it to the end even if it means no job. Either way both lose. Could this be a trend?

Barely any of us alive today had to work in pre-union condition. Find somebody who's approaching 100 and ask them how great the working conditions were when they were young. If your lucky you'll find somebody that had to work in a coal mine when they were 9. You union bashers sound like slaves arguing against being freed. Worse yet you sound even more like the children of freed slaves arguing to be enslaved again.

Why is it fine for upper management and CEO's to have contracts with their employers that protect them, but not for workers? Union bashers are hypocrites to the max!

Hmmm... Mediation failed only because the parties failed to mediate.

I'm reminded of an old saying, and I will paraphrase it: "People, when in the presence of facts, and with common goals in mind, should not have too much trouble coming into agreement."

So, WHAT THE FONGONUS is wrong with the union and Hostess management teams?

Right about now, all of them would be getting a very big "F" grade in university level Labor Law & Collective Bargaining...

Dave20121- I agree with your comment, what bothers me is that the unions are greedy. Knowing this comany is struggling, the unions couldn't help by doing it for the company by cutback a little. This is why I like Japans business smarts. Their way of thinking is you do it for the comapany not the $$$$$$$$$$. These unions all they do is take, take, take and don't care about what it can do to harm the states, the tax payers, the companies. Also I dont agree with unions taking the workers dues to support a political party, that money should stay to help workers not politicians. I refuse to support any union, I think they are crooks, thugs.

All companies should follow this path when threatened by the corrupt, unnecessary thug unions.

also said the company's labor contracts have deterred would-be bidders for the company and its assets.

Here in a nutshell is what is going on. They threw the towel in bacuse they could not compete with the idots they hired in upper mangement and wanted to liquidate their assets and run.

Piegan unions support political parties that support unions and do not support anti union politicians like republicans. Any union member who votes for an anti union candidate gets what he or she deserves. Once Reagan started the death of unions the average wage in America has remained practically the same since then and the top echelon of most compaines has aceelerated its part of the pie from 42 times the average workers pay to over 500 times today. As far as that lame excuse above about non union workers pay and union pay being close together well that just hyperbole. You see they are coming together on the low end as unions pay is decreasing not increasing. You are working for the crooks and thugs pal and are too dumb to even relize it thats what corporate America wants you to be and white American males (some of us) fall for it hook line and sinker.

Its like a robbers gang coming into a city and teaching the public to hate the police then when the polise are kicked out wondering why they are getting robbed all the time.

Bet they already have the sale on paper somwhere and bet there will be plenty of kickbacks to the bosses.

The company made it clear: we will not give in to your demands,

They were striking because of pay cuts 8% right now another 5% next yWhat demands!ear. No further pension and a heck of a ot of stupid work rules nobody cared to accept. Prices are going up and wages are going down and you expect people to roll over everytime managemnet tank a company pays huge bonus's to inept people and then wants to cut your check that you are barely making it on because of all the price increases? Wake up

@Some Lame Name Here: Seriously? We have to go back 100 years to justify the presence of a union? Here is a straw, my good man, no need to reach any longer.

I appreciate what unions have done for all of us slave laborers in the distant past, ie: 40 hour work weeks and over time pay above/beyond that, amongst other advantages and concessions.

I live in a right to work state and have worked union and non-union jobs.

I don't appreciate how unions have become a well oiled machine that seems to constantly put a kink in the works and daily lives of other common folk that consume or otherwise use the services provided by union employees. There ALWAYS seems to be some little inconsequential detail that can't be compromised on and many suffer the consequences of a strike.

Personally, I think the unions are just a huge political cluster-f@ck anymore that add an unecessary cost to workers who don't have much say as to how their dues are spent. The union bosses look pretty well-fed, just like the CEO's. There might be a conflict of interest here. Too much room for corruption.

Unions should be proud and strong but realize, EVEN when CEO's write a big FAT bonus check for themselves, that there is a finite limit to a company's ability to meet your demands for thousands of employees and their ultimate retirement/medical needs, etc.

I am not even that fond of Twinkies. Might eat them while stuck in a ditch in an overturned car for several days but wouldn't go out of my way to find one. Much more of a fruit pie, Ding Dong or Donettes kind of snacker.

We all know these CEO suits suffer no financial "pain" during these downturns like the rest of us but they have practiced CYA and can walk away comfortably.

Not so for the approximately 18,000 union workers who stood by their guns and just got lowered down a few notches.

Why in hell would you, in good conscience, strike and turn your back on 20 bucks an hour in these uncertain times?

I'd have been one of those that went scab and brought home a paycheck while it was available.

See you in the unemployment line lemmings.

Poof went your job...

@cruddola: very aptly named. The union(s) did this, not the company. If you think otherwise, I have this fantastic ocean front property in Idaho to sell you.

It's funny that after 2 days the company announced they were closing an ad for a supervisor appeared in our local paper. The more i read these stories the more it reminds me of the way the company I worked for for 35 years played us. Corporate greed is tearing this country apart financially. The only solution i see is for CEO and other management salaries to be within a certain percentage of average all workers wages. CEQ's who are paid 1000 or more times what people on the floor making product can't relate and think the worker is below them and undeserving. Congress should impose limits to put these jerks in thier place and force them to share some of the pie with those who bust thier butts every day .

Hats off to the NFL referee union though!

I'd have traded a freightcar packed with Twinkies to get the lesser of two evils back on the field.

You know, whatever it takes.

I am in a union and will always be on the side of labor. However in this case it seems that the union higher-ups got it wrong (based only on knowledge in this article). There certainly is such a thing as bad unioning; Twinkies in their own truck? Come on. People here shouldn't assume all Hostess union members are greedy and shiftless - often it is the higher-ups and negotiating team who have their own axe to grind. I feel sorry for workers who lose their job. The Execs? They'll negotiate a good bankruptcy deal, score a payola, then move on to the next company to do the same thing. They win either way.

I am so tired of hearing all this crap about the unions. Most of you here have NO CLUE about what has been going on with this company. All you keep hearing about is what the media tells you. The unions DID NOT go to Hostess wanting more of anything. Hostess kept coming to the union workers wanting more and more. Three years ago the drivers union voted on and agreed to take a $100 a week pay cut to help the company get out of bankruptcy. Where did all that money go? Then, in 2011 the company came back wanting to take even more from the workers while the management was not seeing any cuts. Hostess stopped paying into pensions last June, breaking the contract! Where did all that money go? And then Hostess has the nerve to come to the workers to take more of their paycheck, because management has no clue how to run a company? They wanted to lower the commission rates on the drivers and raise insurance rates while giving a crappier insurance. The WORKERS voted it down! They were tired of being screwed by a company that cared more for its management than it did for its workers! How would all of you like to be working 50-60 hours a week bring home the same as (or less than sometimes) a minimum wage job!!!! QUIT BLAMING THE UNION, WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE THE FACTS!!!

It is fashionable to bash unions today, and truthfully, there have been union excesses in the past.

But a company which produces an iconic line of snack foods, which, until a couple of weeks ago, you could find in almost any food store from Maine to California, and which still cannot make a profit? A company which triples it CEO's pay while the company is sliding into bankruptcy?

This is not a company whose chief problem is labor cost.

BTW: Take look around at U.S. industry. Today, the average CEOs at America's 350 largest companies earn 231 times as much money as does the average, private sector worker. IN 1965, when America was the largest manufacturer on the planet, this ratio was about 20 to 1.

What has happened over the last 47 years, while executive pay rates were skyrocketing?

Has our society become wealthier?

Has U.S. manufacturing flourished?

For what are these executives truly being paid?

Competence?

But, yeah, let's blame the unions.

What you are actually clamoring for is to be treated like workers in China, or South East Asia.

Hang tough all you Hostess Union members. Your reward will be exactly the same as the Eastern Airlines Union members. Although, you might just want to check out what that 'reward' was. ROTFLMAO at the stupidity and greed of the Union rank and file!

Or, a victory for everyone not involved with a union. The company made it clear: we will not give in to your demands, because we cannot afford it and we would be forced to shut down. The union tried to call a non-existent bluff, and the company shut down. LOL.

Sounds like the company is the victim of bad management and an unyielding union. Both are losers.

People who don't finish school or fail to get an education that's in demand will find themselves competing with workers from China or Mexico. How much skill is needed to bake Twinkies? I'm guessing very little. If you can be replaced by a trained chimp, you will be.

If you can't make it to college, at least train to be a plumber or electrician. Those people are in demand and have some control over their working conditions and future. Any moron can pour ingredients into a big vat. That makes you expendable.

So the main "vulture capitalist" (really, sooo clever) that invested in Hostess in 2009 (Ripplewood) made an initial investment of $130 million, then poored millions more into it along the way. Hostess lost over $300 million in 2011 -- I fail to grasp how they will walk away with huge profits, even with all that greed everyone's talking about. We'll have to wait and see how it all breaks down in BK court. And FYI, Tim Collins, the guy who runs Ripplewood, is (gasp!) a Democrat. http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/tag/hostess/

Plenty of blame to go around here, but go ahead, it's soooo trendy and so much easier to blame Republicans and greedy investors for everything.

I spent awhile as management of a Chevrolet dealership that all the techs were union workers...that was the biggest joke ever. Union workers hide behind their "union" and make excuses to why they won't work overtime or any other time that isn't on their "schedule" The union hurts companies that want to make an honest dollar. I really stinks when a union employee breaks a rule or regulation and there is no way management can remove them...and yes, this has happened to me. I really sucks to have to look at someone everyday that hides behind their "union"

You might want to do some research on who is actually calling the shots there - it's not "management" or the evil Republicans. Check out a rather prominant Democrat - Dick Gephardt. His consulting group just happens to also be an equity owner of Hostess. That would be the Democratic hopeful for President in the 1990's. Painting with a broad brush is not only inaccurate - it is ignorant.

This is why Federal Employees have virtually no turn overdue to disciplinary matters. No one is accountable!

I grew up in the Mid West, where everyone's dream job was getting a job at a car plant, or any labor job on an assembly line. Whatever job you get first out of high school, you keep until you retire or they lay you off. I had friends who worked at the Wonder Bread plant. Yeah they made more money then I did, but it was a dead end job as far as I was concerned. I left town when I turned 21, and have a real college educated career. After 30 years, most people I know either still have the same exact job or doing some similar job making the same income they made 30 years ago.

I am a Little Debbie Distributor. We are independent and operate with financial prudence becaue WE take care of ourselves as individuals and don't expect THE COMPANY not to make a profit. You now see where the Unions get you. I was a card carrying teemster 40 years ago. Good ridance to union excess.

Union workers hide behind their "union" and make excuses to why they won't work overtime or any other time that isn't on their "schedule"

Yes, how dare workers have a life outside of and more important than their jobs.

This is a victory for no one, but is definately the fault of the union.

DancerTiffy ( #2 )

Care to explain why the Auto Industry went under and made obama bail them out and kill OBL????

And with the Bail out, the Unions made BILLIONS of 'Mine and Your' Tax money.

P.S. The Non-Union Workers down the line got gutted. But no one seems to care about that and you never hear th Alphabet Press has nothing to say about them...

The unions are famous for shooting themselves in the foot. They cost themselves, other unions and the distributors over 20,000 jobs. If Bimbo of Mexico picks up Hostess and the family that owns Bimbo is worth over 4 Billion dollars then Bimbo can use cheap Mexican labor and supplies to produce the same products. Thanks to Obama, Mexican trucks and drivers can cross the border and deliver the products cheaper than Hostess did.

Obummer instead of staying home and jawboning the union to take the contract is globe trotting giving away more U.S. jobs.

So Obummer stopped Canada from selling oil to the U.S. through the new pipe line. He wanted to stop Boeing from opening up a new plant with non union workers to be more competitive with Airbus.

JUST EXACTLY WHO IS OBUMMER WORKING FOR?

I saw interviews of the striking workers on TV, and I'm sure that these heavily educated geniuses will be able to hire on right away....probably with some high-tech company. Not so? Oh well, President Santa Claus will sign them up for unemployment benefits for 99 weeks, or whatever ridiculous vacation package he's giving away now.

unions =4times the cost with half the work output whata suprise they gotta fold

The real joke is that they call these union strikers bakers! Hell it is all computerized and mechanized. All these guys do is push buttons and everything is automatic. These are not chefs that individually make twinkies and bread! They are button pushers and maybe fork lift drivers. Throw the ingredients in one side and pick up the prepacked filled boxes on the other side!

I doubt any of these people even got near an oven!

Spider, your post 2.14 has me rolling in the aisles with laughter. Good one dude!

Well the anti union paid bots are here and also a sprinkling of Obama haters so this is a lost cause to even stay. Good luck and in the end remember we told you what was going to happen. They are seting you up for the republican new world order. i saw it when I was in China three meals a day a place to throw your sleeping mat and 16 hour workdays for a buck a day take home pay. But it may please those who do not want unions.

S'cuse me Mr. breadex?

I'm gonna hafta axe for a concubine wif my mat.

Maybe anotha haffa buck for other essentials.

Y'all willin' ta compmize?

And they still don't get it!!!!!! I hear that seiu and other union trolls are going to "walk the picket line" on black friday......... And whats O'Bama say? We need more Union teachers, firemen, & Police. O'Bama: the union & food stamp Putz. It's going to be funny to watch the Bakers Union Officials toss their members under the Obama-care bus....The Union GREED has killed the Twinkies & the American Dream. Don't get me started on VEEP Joe (court Jester) the teamster Biden!!!

... You people never actually research these stories, do you? You all knee jerk and scream and whine and cry. Oh Boo Hoo the Unions are just pure evil! Poor CEOs, do not worry! We shall rescue your golden parachutes for you!... Ugh. The CEOs were getting huge bonuses and the Members below weren't having money paid into their pensions, which was in their contracts. Hostess was stripping it's workers of money that was SUPPOSED to be given to them so they could throw it at the CEOs instead.

Don't comment on a story until you actually GOOGLE this story and check multiple news outlets. Some news outlets are biased and couldn't report their way out of a wet paper bag.

The CEO gives himself a 300% raise, the rest of the management team is getting millions in "retention bonuses" so that they don't walk off the job (how is that different from striking?) -- but it's all the union's fault for not accepting another pay cut. Get a clue, folks. The company is not profitable because the management is stripping it of it's assets. When you pay yourself first, that money never shows up in the bottom line. The vulture capitalists who bought out the company never had any intention of operating it successfully. Their only goal was to keep it alive long enough to extract every last penny for themselves.

Tattooed. Good job Hostess, Your kidding right. These guys are screwed. The Court will not let them control the wind down, They are not going to be able to rape the company and the Creditor. They can't still the retirement from the workers either. The Ceo's thought they could pull a Romney and walk away with all the money. Not happening this time. And when they brand is sold to whom ever. That money goes to the Courts to spread that money to those that are owed. The people at the top wont get any of this money, not for the lack of trying.

chuck-2111043

Are you saying that they cannot pull an OBAMA, you know, like he did when HE SAVED the Auto Industry... (You know, Pay off the Unions before the Secured Creditors... Cover the Retirement of Union WORKERS and not the Non-Union Wokers... Is that what you are saying is a "Romney".... We SAW it HAPPEN and OBAMA did it, not Romney)

P.S. GM and Chyrsler are NOT THE ONLY AUTO MAKERS IN THE USA... And By the way, the REST are ALSO part of the AUTO Industry.

Wow, Chuck, that's some really great sounding s**t you made up there! By the way, how are the rest of the folks out there in Fantasyland getting along?

chuck-2111043 Hostess lost 300 Million dollars last year. The pay for the workers was almost 1 billion dollars last year. Exactly how is Hostess going to find money to pay the millions you are talking about for the executives?

Paying the existing executives 100,000 apiece for winding down the company and forgoing a salary for several months and their pensions is hardly raping the company.

THINK BEFORE YOU PUT YOUR FINGERS ON THE KEYBOARD. Hostess debt is over 1.2 BILLION DOLLARS!

I know you have no training in economics. But if the company is sold, and the figure is about 200 million dollars on a good day or $150 million on a bad day. There is nothing left over for anyone. Remember that Hostess owes the workers pension fund $180 MIllion dollars. Therefore if the judge adjudicates an across the board even payout, MAYBE the pension fund will get $15 million. The only chance the union workers had to get the full $180 million payout to their pension fund was to keep Hostess alive and working.

The union boys are out of a job and out of pension. ATTAWAY TO GO!

except now those states are going to be saddled with unemployment benefits and food stamps, provided by tax payers of course.

The unions represent all, you should thank them instead of condeming them!

What will probably happen if they can find a buyer, is, the buyer will take the assets, and leave the liabilities for the court to settle. Then, probably offshore the assets.

mgbirish You have yet to show any specifics I can verify. Of course you haven't looked up what the teamsters accepted from Hostess. What is good for the teamsters is not good for the other very small union?

Wall Street has their Lobbyists influencing legislators' decisions and Labor has theirs, they're called Unions. Seems even to me! Mexighanistan will now add Twinkies to their exports along with cheap labor, illegals and dope! Americans will still suck them all up! Viva Bimbo Twinkies! Who knows, maybe Chinese Twinkies! Coming to a grocer near you!

Yup, keep on blaming the union and the workers..... they were the ones who drove the company into bancruptsy by loading up the company with debt that is now at 1 billion dollars. Who knew the workers had so much power to run a company into the red and the management folks could not stop them. LOL

This blaming the employees and the unions sound so familiar..... wasn't it the same tatic that was used re the housing bubble bursting and the financial crash of wall street in 2007 - 2009, where certain folks pushed that story that it was poor people ( those welfare recipients types) buying homes that they could not or should not be able to afford that caused the housing bubble, the bubble bursting and the financial /Wall Street crash taking the USA and the global economy with it? Wasn't it later shown that that old ' the po folks crashed the economy' meme was not true? LOL

Anyhoo, this loading up the the business with debt, stripping and/or not funding the the employees pensions fund as required, then forcing the company into bancruptsy seem to be the text book way of skrwing the employees and strip mining the company leaving the employees out in the cold and the tax payers on the hook for the pensions of company.

When the company went into bancruptsy wasn't it only in the red 500 million, and now it is 1 billion in debt? How come, especially when the employees seem to have taken deep wage and benefits cuts the first time round? It seem that the employees did not get that money so where did that other 500 million dollars go?

Why does this Hostess situation it look and sound like what was done to that other company years ago when the employees were asked to build that platform and after building it the management came out to tell them that they were all fired and in which the employees lost everything .... you know that political ad re what Romney and his company did to some companies in the 1990s and in which included outsourcing of the jobs overseas? Hmmmm

History repeating itself... over and over and over.... wow

Peace....

@BZe1: "Who knew the workers had so much power to run a company into the red and the management folks could not stop them. LOL"

Uh, well, dangit, you got me. Nope, kidding, and I still have enough brain cells to rub together to allow me to make an intelligent statement. Pretty hard to run a company when workers are on strike. In this case however, you have what is essentially a 3 year old refusing to accept that you cannot give them a Bentley because you can only afford a 20 year old Honda. The union/workers did this. Point out any fact that proves, or even suggests, otherwise.

Basically, businesses rely on productivity. If no-one is producing, there is no business. Simple math always, inexplicably, escapes the simplest of us all. The unions sure won on this one, didn't they?

as far as the bailout of gm is concerned dumbbama should have left that alone too. they could have restructured and got the unions out of assembly plant and could make cars affordably (like toyota and honda do). ever since the bailout gm has been cutting technicians labor times. and im sure other things like chinese parts and asembly plants in mexico. as a technician i make less now than i did 10 years ago at $6 more an hour. I used to be able to make 60 hours a week in a 5 day work week now i work 6 days to make 45 hours. so basically a lot of workers had to take pay cuts over the years to stay profitable. well except management they still make their 6 figures.

BZe1, it's because for some reason everyone thinks the Union is some great epic evil, and that throwing free money at the highest paid in America is somehow going to bring jobs back. This isn't the Hostess that made itself a national institution, the creator is long gone. Those business men that thrived when America was at it's worst and did their best no longer exist. These new CEOs buy into a new company, rip it apart for all it's worth, then leap out on a golden parachute, taking with them jobs, and a buttload of cash to add to their coffers.

Enough is never enough to these people. They don't care about building a branch, consumer trust, employee happiness. They don't want a long term, they want it like the old days, where it was all about slave wages where you could barely live paycheck to paycheck. Sadly, there are too many uneducated people that would rather scream at the top of their lungs, and blame the President, who isn't even IN this article, rather than research any one story.

You sir may have all my likes, thank you for being a voice of reason.

Iagree. mostly it is the unions fault ..been in them and was member but they did nothing for me .. Had job was making good money and when it came for contract dicussions the union pushed so hard the company closed .. and i was making 50.000 a year and i was happy .. so i do not believe it was Hostess Fault . Unions are greedy just like the govenment.. and now look at all them people 18000 of them out of work .. is the union going to pay them just what the employees were making ? hell no .. they are not . they are just going to rape the dues they collected from the members.. And the unions say they are behind the people they represent .. Unions are like big government they play with people's lives .. wake up America.. Take back our country .. put the asses in DC back in their place get them to represent you and not their pockets.. We need a government and unions to work for us not themselves ..all they want to do is line their pockets and screw the middle class .. oops i for got there is no middle class anymore .. your either rich or poor .. This country is headed the way of the Roman empire .. no democracy ever survived 500 hundred years or more.. Tis ashame the people of this country listen to false promises made to them . by @!$%#s of the government .. when will they realise liberals, democrats and republician really to not give a flying **** about them .. they do not care one bit about you or anyone else . hell the government has no restraint what so ever .. look at what Obama did for Turkey when it had a earth quake back i think a couple years ago .. 19 billion dollars went to them .. what the hell has turkey done fo rus to allow our dumb ass president to with a stroke of a pen give them 19 billion dollars. Hell we cannot even pay China back .. them asses.. christ i got to go this is really pissing me off along with them pissing away my hard earned tax dollars . jesus christ what a screwed up government system we have .. we the people of a poor America . stand by and just get poorer and poorer as the fat cats eat and enjoy their reward they so called legally steal from us .. i got to go this is pisisng me off .. so wake up America it is you who are going to eat rice soon ....enjoy Chinese rule..

To all the Union lovers who claim it's management's fault. Here is a slice of the Union Rules:

The work rules imposed in union contracts required the company that makes Twinkies, which also makes Wonder Bread, to deliver these two products to stores in separate trucks. Moreover, truck drivers were not allowed to load either of these products into their trucks. And the people who did load Twinkies into trucks were not allowed to load Wonder Bread, and vice versa.

The Unions are the vultures and they kill companies with stupid-a** rules like that that force inefficiency and put more people on the Union payroll.

Hang tough all you Hostess Union members. Your reward will be exactly the same as the Eastern Airlines Union members. Although, you might just want to check out what that 'reward' was. ROTFLMAO at the stupidity and greed of the Union rank and file!

hey freak w/tattoo's you are a union hater but i'd sure like to know why,how about the people who went to work for x amount of years,did their job ,now some crumb of a ceo is/has stolen all the money and telling them they are done,he and his upper echelon should be drug thru the streets of america while tied to a truck till they expire.or let all 18,000 workers trample them.that's justice,oh but its not our way in america,its fixed the whole playbook is fixed,enjoy chinese rice.

IF anyone wonders why companies are moving their manufacturing out of the US, this is it. My father was a union member for forty years. In the beginning they did a great job helping its members gain a higher standard of living. Now, it borders on extortion. People talk about how much the hostess management makes. I would like to see how much the head of the union makes for doing nothing.

http://www.businessinsider.com/hostess-shrugged-2012-11

I have not verified the numbers, but if true, the union and its members deserve what they got. 35% over industry standard? Give me a break. And Hostess wasn't really asking for much guaranteeing that they would still be 24% over and would have been back to 35% over three years from now. Extortion killed the Union. And Hostess will only be the beginning.

Right on Ron389. That trucking and loading issue alone tells you everything you need to know about this union. They were greedy, fat and happy and now they are unemployed. Way to go organized labor!

The unions dont represent me, i am able to fend for myself without the unions 'help". i feel sorry for the workers that are going to lose everything becuase the greed at the top. It is funny though how twinkees will survive, no matter what.

Both sides are idiots. They're like two enemies with their hands around each others' throats that are willing to die as long as the other guy dies a millisecond sooner. They all deserve what happens next. My guess is that a foreign company will end up owning the recipe when the dust settles.

"YOU had to take an 8% pay cut or be blamed for crashing the company. "

So I am one of the 1% then, because I think an 8% reduction is better than a 100% reduction? Ok, I can go with this one.

Exactly how did the union win here? I'm confused. One union chose to reach an agreement and keep working. The other chose to refuse concessions and now no one will have a job. Woohoo!

Obviously, the company got in trouble over various reasons -- poor management, failed bailout plans, 80 years worth of union pension obligations and stupid agreements like using different trucks to deliver the goods. The perfect storm, but no one wins here.

yeah way to stand up, instead of win-win. Now they get to stand in the unemployment line. Lovely.... I hope you read the concessions the company gave the union. At one time Unions were needed. Today, not so sure. Too bad they didn't file 6 months sooner, maybe Obama would have bailed them out too. Last thought -- the death of the Twinkie was already coming thanks to Obamacare. No way the Govt lets us eat foods like this going forward. Welcome to the new world order of Big Government.

Less than 10% of the workforce is unionized. Does that tell you something.. We are going backwards.. The robber barons are being born again with the Governments Ok.

Best Buy is also circling the drain: How can we pin this on the unions?
no union to be found anywhere near the place. so how can a non union business possibly go under? aren't the unions solely responsible for every business failure the u.s. has ever seen?

come on union haters, find a way to pin this one on the unions too...

Ok, the union of Antiquated Business Models, High Prices, Poor Customer Service, and More Accessible and Convenient Merchants. Also known as ABMHPPCSMACM for short. Sometimes colloquially known as "reality" or "the business environment".

I worked there for 17 years, i could live with the 8% pay cut but that was not all the company wanted, up to 17% more for insurance and lost contributions to the penison plan put our workers at about 32% in losses. How many of you could take one third of your pay and benefits cut and still be a happy. I'm glad we shut those greedy dirtbags down...

"Hostess strikers, you're awesome for standing up for yourselves!"

AND NOW YOU ARE UNEMPLOYED. But don't worry, Barry O will take care of you.

Must have been a really bad deal to have people NOT go back to work. You all can sit and say what you want about unions, but the people would not agree to their demands and would rather not have a job.

Another example of the dumbing down of America, losing 8% of your income is worse than losing 100%!

Thank You Chairman Mao....

TattooedPhreak, I'm trying to comprehend how this squares with reality:

old worker agreements that, for instance, required employing separate drivers for two different kinds of Hostess products rather than trucking them together.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you have entered the Twilight Zone....

trondog, perhaps you should read the thread more carefully. My post was a tongue-in-cheek reply to dave summit, who was somehow trying to make the Hostess debacle a paradigm for every other company that is failing right now. Companies succeed, companies fail. It is a fact of life. Relying on business models from the 1940's, or believing unions have a place anywhere in the world outside of marriage, is a recipe for disaster.

What's to worry about, 99 weeks of unemployment, food stamps, free phones, free health care to name a just a few of the freebies will discourage many to look for new work. How many more business owners will close shop, folks feel entitled to more and more of what the owners earned. Why would anyone in their right mind put up with a bunch of BS, unions, higher medical expenses, higher taxes and the hassle of running a business when they can close the doors and live out their life with financial security and no worries to speak of.

The drain on the system to include 18,500 more unemployed will take a toll, not to mention the tax revenue lost. Hopefully people will wake up and realize the money fairy doesn't exist and they will have to figure out how to support them selves when the money for free stuff is gone. If I were a business owner I would I would live up to the expectations that the liberals have of the wealthy and see how that works out for everyone.

I worked for years as a union carpenter in Oregon. The carpenters had a great incentive plan. Work hard or get fired. I don't know what other unions are like but the carpenter's union was great, we built some amazing structures all within a safe workplace.

@skeptic - while I won't disagree with you at all that the fairness of having to take a cut in pay, reduced pensions and all that jazz is not an easy thing to take - especially when the top dog is making an obscene amount of money while the company is struggling, the sad truth is that is corporate America - they all do it. The top get theirs and the rest has to do with less. That is just how the game is played. There are many people throughout the country who have had pay cuts, pension cuts, higher insurance (before Obamacare mind you) and frozen pay for several years now despite the fact that literally everything costs more. We have all lost in the game being played. But . . . as tough as that it, we/they at least have a pay check. I can tell you I have personally toured some of those bakery plants for business/insurance purposes. The one thing I noticed is some of the jobs people had watching the automated equipment do the work it was designed to do. You know, things like watching the zingers dumping out into the slots to make sure the right side was up so the cream filling is put onto the correct side of the zinger . . . flipping the zinger when it landed wrong. Then there are the people watching boxes of donuts be filled and weighed . . . watching the automatic arm bump the box off the scale into the trash if the weight wasn't right. You know, those kinds of jobs - I am not knocking anyone who did those jobs, but I know they were paid very well considering what they did. I don't know what you did there - nor do I really care. Perhaps you made a good deal of money while working there and saved a lot - if you did, good for you. However, to be happy you shut a company down and effecting 18,500 people is just plain dumb. I personally know quite a few people in my area who work for Hostess - they are not happy to be without a job and while they hated to take a cut in pay or pension, they had a job and were looking at ways to work with what they had. I repeat, they had a job - now they don't.

Totallytrue- well said.

don't judge a persons job until you have walked in their shoes! different types of stores and customers to please. many different types of hostess and wonder products to sell. not to mention the regional bakeries brands that were bought out when the then cfo was lying to the SEC about the value of IBC stock. ( and he received a huge bonus after being caught) now you're talking about a job that deals with around 30-40- different demanding people a day, before they return to their depot and have to deal with a manager who's qualifications are: they're related to someone in management and they sold greeting cards when they were a boy scout. this company deserves what they're getting and the workers deserve better

@exbreadman: I am completely lost. "a job that deals with around 30-40- different demanding people a day". Really? If that is all you deal with, christ I want your job. I deal with more than that at the grocery store. If going out of business means they get to avoid employees like you, then yes, I guess they do deserve this.

@exbreadman - do you really think that this is the only company that does this type of stuff? Really??? They ALL do it man - ALL of them. The top will always turn sh-!t into gold for themselves and the rest, well you just get the sh-!t. The few take care of themselves and their friends - once the company goes under, then they move onto the next one and start the process all over again. It is a very small circle in the corporate world - "friends look out for the friends" get it? I am with Tattooed - if all you have to deal with is 30-40 demanding people and people that are not as qualified as you think they should be - wow . . . I'd like you to come into my company and see what it is like - you wouldn't last more than a couple of days at best.

Good luck exbreadman - really mean it - good luck with whatever you move onto next. I also hope you find the magic company somewhere out there that doesn't operate like that . . . then let me know who they are - I will want to work there too.

Tatt... your kind are always right... always one-sided and always ignorant of facts. You see it one way or the highway. Why is that? You voted for Romney, right? Not surprised. You dinosaurs will be extinct in the next election...

Last response to you, 32maniac: Do you not see the irony in your statement, "You see it one way or the highway. Why is that?"? Seriously, let it go. Work on your breathing. Or have a Twinkie; I hear they are pretty good.

Tatt... So I called you out on Chapter 11 and now you are bailing out? Figures... you know nothing but criticism for something you obviously have zero knowledge. Just picking on unions... Its an old strategy and so old and worn out...

Uh, hit F5, or right click and refresh. I responded awhile ago.

here's another company going to mexico. how long is it until i'm swimming the Rio looking for work. The plant I worked for went to mexico. I don't under stand nafta free trade when mexico pays 10 cents on the dollar for wages and we can't compete with that. I remember when our union was fighting our company proposal of eliminating work force reduction by making a pool of employees that float where there are needed by different parts of the plant, the problem was that this would eliminate overtime for more senior workers. do you really think that someone would rather shut down business in stead of keeping business going. I would only ask. How much are these displaced workers gonna make at wal-mart.

oh- sorry but I must say this

there goes the Twinkies defence

Unions do all sorts of nutty things to drain a companies profits. Perhaps there was some specific reason for it it, but . . . sending out two trucks to the same stores? One with just Twinkies on it, and one with all other products?? So now the company has double costs in trucks and drivers? If they allowed the Twinkies and Cup cakes to touch each other, they may have invented the next Reese Cup, when the chocolate and peanut butter accidentally mixed.

I worked at a trade show where only a Union person can plug in a power cord. This Union person just sat around doing nothing until he was called to plug in a power cord to power an exhibit. I'm sure all of you plugged in an electric appliance before. It doesn't take much effort or some innate skill. We had to wait for an hour for this guy to come by and plug in our power cord. I was hungry and tired, and just wanted to go to my hotel, but I had to wait for this guy to do a three second task. He probably got paid just as much as me, but I doubt he knew nothing abut computers, networks, or regulatory laws.

Yeah, I know a union welder and he just leans on a shovel all day until he is needed to weld, I have drove by and actually seen him doing this. And he has boasted about doing it.

So these companies are having to pay for nothing. You should be paid for working, not doing nothing. It is very selfish to think you should be paid for doing nothing.

So obviously the non management workers are just as incompetent as the management.

32maniac Tell you what. You tell Obummer to get rid of all the companies in the U.S. and forego the taxes they pay and you take over all the companies with your incredibly brilliant mind and earn a profit for the companies to pay the share holders and make all the right decisions to keep all the GREAT AMERICAN COMPANIES in the U.S. Remember Fruit of the Loom and their slogan Proudly made by American Union Workers? Well the imports killed them off and they went off shore. Kodak.........from $50 a share to $.15 a share, check the market and there are about 50 more famous ex American companies that unions put in the hole. GIMME, GIMME, GIMME. Clinton signed the famous NAFTA agreement and since then Mexico balance of payments went from 0 to over $500 billion dollars. Canada balance of payments went up annually from $15 billion a year to $80 billion a year. This year Obummer signed free trade agreement with South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.