Oh NO!

[downtownv]

Did Obamacare go too far? Is the costs too high?

[MW surveyor]

Most probably.

From what I heard on the radio the other day.......Hostess was in bankruptcy and attempting to restructure. The baker's union wanted an 8% raise and Hostess replied that if the union did not back off on the 8% raise, they would just fold. Evidently the union did not back off from their demands so..............no more "Twinky" defense in the future.

[jocko]

Most probably.

From what I heard on the radio the other day.......Hostess was in bankruptcy and attempting to restructure. The baker's union wanted an 8% raise and Hostess replied that if the union did not back off on the 8% raise, they would just fold. Evidently the union did not back off from their demands so..............no more "Twinky" defense in the future.

they were ask to take an 8% cut and they said no. Hostess has a bunch of unions in the copany and in early this year they filed bankrptcy ad the courts ruled in Hostess favor against one of the unions. This union now that strukc hostess roguht the entrie comapny to a hald.

The union bosses even sent their accouning people in to hostess and did their due diligence and basically found what Hostess was telling the members was dear true. They even went asw far as to come out and tell the union workers they should take a BALLOT VOTE (which is unheard on in union voting as u well know for it is the intimidation factor that drives union members to stick together), anyway the Union bosses told the membership that Hostess was not bluffing and would indeed shut the place down and the members basicaly tld the union bosses FOKK U. so no twinkies this week for ol jocko. No doubt the big ame products made by Hosterss will be bought up by different bakeries but u can truyst they willnot be unionized or certainly not be rehiring the striking workers. A shame. U can blame the union, , the company, the economy but one thing is for sure 18K workers are out of a job in an enviroment that IS JUST NOT HIRNG. And if u have been a bekr for 22 years, then just what skills do u hav eto go lookng elsewhere.

If I recall the unions in Canada, called Caterpillars bluff about 6 months ago, and cat closed the plant and came to Indiana to build their locomotives etc.

Not sure how obummer can step inb here and do jack sh!t . He got reelected so he really cold care less now about the average worker. Remember he is after those 1% ers now:blah:

Course tomaybe we can blame obummers wife for the downfall of Hostess as that fat slug has campaingend against junk food and hostess brands was one of her targets to. Just sayin

[muggsy]

Two of my golf buddies drove for Hostess. Both good union men. Both voted for Obama. They'll have a lot more time for golf now, but I think that they are going to be spending that time reevaluating their vote.

[CrabbyAzz]

Hostess has been flirting with bankruptcy for the last decade, can't blame on Obama. Also, what kind of cuts were management planning to take. Probably none...

I don't much care for unions, but I try not to judge them till you know the whole story. Maybe they have been taking cuts for years now.. Don't know. I remember the year my company gave us across the board 10% pay cut because economic times were bad. Then we found out everyone manager level and above got a 20% bonus. I'm not talking CEO's, I'm talking rank and file managers which accounts for about 30% of the employee's. Basically they turned us upside down and shook out our pockets..

[HalfCocked]

They were asked for a 8% pay cut, the second pay cut. Not a raise. Also the company took their pension fund, which the employees had paid into. In addition upper management voted themselves a pay raise and bonus while all the time never updating their product or marketing. Nobody wins but some will loose more than others..... not a Obama thing or even a union thing.

[Longitude Zero]

They were in bankruptcy proceedings long before the election. I am sure Odummercare might thave helped but the primary issue was intransigence on the part of certain employees. I know workers in the local facilities that were more than happy to take the cuts in order to keep their jobs.

75% of something is better than 100% of unemployment. Certain employees called the companies bluff and lost. This was an easily forseen event by educated individuals.

[yqtszhj]

Go buy all the Twinkys you can find. They will be a collectors item and it's been proven that there are enough additives that they will last as long as the pyramids :)

[jocko]

They were asked for a 8% pay cut, the second pay cut. Not a raise. Also the company took their pension fund, which the employees had paid into. In addition upper management voted themselves a pay raise and bonus while all the time never updating their product or marketing. Nobody wins but some will loose more than others..... not a Obama thing or even a union thing.

that is right. The company stopped funding their penion fund 2 years ago. they didn't to my knowlkedge take their pension fund.

It's over for the employees, they can go on unemployment now and live off the goverment for awhile. I would have thought though that when the union itself went in with their accountig people and came out with the conclusinon that Hostess was indeed not bluffiing, tha their membership would have understood it was serious. the sad thing IMO is that if they had had a ballot sealed membership vote, they would be back to work today, to much intimidation within the unions. Call management what u want taking no pay cuts, we don't really know that but, what about the union exec's who live off the sweat and blood of the workig membership. U sure never hear of them sacrificing jack sh!t either...

difference of most companies and our govrnment is that most companies can't tax their people into prosperity, where as our government thinks they can..

[Bawanna]

Its payback for all the unions supporting Obummer. Mine did too. I'm sure he's celebrating on the golf course as we speak.

I have zero use for unions. It's almost like liberal government, perfect for people who don't want to work for their money.

My last warehouse job, management wanted to pay me more money because I was producing and assigned special orders because I didn't make mistakes.

Union wouldn't allow it, said if they paid me more they had to pay everyone more.

Company offered to match everything the union did and then raises based on merit with no layoffs and starting pay stayed the same etc. The guys wouldn't go for it. They were all convinced we'd all be fired as soon as we signed.

Stupid people.

I guess in government work it might not be bad since there really is no owner, just another employee who is appointed the boss and gets to deal the cards. Sort of a no dog in the race situation. But in the private sector unions suck.

[jocko]

good post great one. If Hoffa was such a great union guy and not a slug, he would not be under some driveway today. Trrumpka is no different either, course one big difference waS when Hoffa talked he was talking in front of 50,000 union people. today guys like trumka are talking to 100 give our take and most of those are ordered to be there even. this Hostess thing will set the unions back even more years. they ain't history yet but theire story very shortly will be something like "ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS THESE GROUPS OF PEOPLE WHO CALLED THEMSELVES UNION PEOPLE, yadda yadda yadda. There was an article in USA about a week ago that stated the 30 states that have the RIGHT TO WORK LAW, has hired more people in the past 5 years than the other 20 states in the past . Does that tell anyone anything??? I don't know, just askin. U can read into it ahything u want

a young entreprenaur and two others 2 years ago francised a KY fried chickena nd taco bell under the same roof, u-p on the hillby our local \wal-mart. I was talking to him yesterday abou the economyt etc and he siad, when they started business they hired 47 peole to work there, today 2 years later only 2 of the original are left. He siad so many came in higher than akite, some sold drugs inside the business, some were drunk, some stole. He said this busines venture was the worst investment he ever made, not that they did not have two good products, but help was just the pits.. and tho thinbk he was sharing the profits withg two other partners, ..

[OldLincoln]

I don't understand the union thinking here. On the one hand it's 92% of what they were getting, on the other hand it's 0%. Is that stubbornness, greed, irresponsible to families, or do they consider that an act of valor, honor, going down with the ship.

Years ago my BIL owned a small record company and had a guy that was really good. He told the guy that he needs a bigger label and move up. Buck Owens offered him a contract whereby he would get 50% of net and promote the guy making him a star. The guy was insulted at the 50% offer, still singing in bars, and regrets that decision every day. He told my BIL he finally figured out that 50% of millions is more than $500 a week in bars.

Anyway, back to the union.... with all those new unemployed, is Obama going to blame the unions? Nah....

[jocko]

can u blame obummer???In a way u sure can. the uncertailyt of the cost of obummer care, the taxes going up on small business owners. the cost of doing business today due to goverment over regulation and enviromental changes causing power to cost more, gas to cost more, certainy insurance to cost more and thenb add to that the city's themselves having ti raise city and county taxes to keep their infrastrucre going, and again abiding by new government regulations.

A good example, this small town of our's has had for a 100 years what most cities call CSO lines. common sewer lines,where run off water also went into our sewer treatment plant. Government says no no u can't do that any more u gotta separate the two lines. It is costing our little small ass town millions in borroed money to sepaerate these lines. Is it good for the enviremont, ???Hell maybe it is, but again is it good for these small towns to have to come up withg the funding to do this sh!t when for a 100 years, it has seemed to work OK. Add up the local taxes u pay for property tax, sales tax, city tax, and then federal tax, and then state tax and then if indeed ur a payer of all of these in some way or anutter, then ask yourself, are u ready to PAY ALITTLE MORE, as Harry as$wipe reed seems to think is OK, but oh no lets not ask anyone under 250K of income to pay ALITTLE MORE

[Bawanna]

O isn't gonna blame the union no way no how. He took too much of their money to get in office AGAIN.

[muggsy]

I feel for the working man. He screwed by the employer if there isn't a union and screwed by the union if he votes one in. I was treated much better in nonunion shops, but only because the threat of a union hung over them. I guess a man just does what he can. Sometimes to have to go along to get along.

[Bawanna]

What chaffes my backside is I hired into a union shop. I don't have a choice. If I want to work there I have to join the union. I have to pay some suit and tie to play bones supposedly in my behalf that probably makes 4 times the money I make.

In that same warehouse job I was even the shop steward. The owner of the company thru an intermediary said we needed a shop steward, we'd never had one and our union rep said he was our steward.
The owner specifically said he wanted me to be the steward. So since I thunk it up and the others were just slackers they voted me in much against the union reps wishes since he didn't want us to have one.

Once I was in, the owner was so relieved. He said he couldn't talk to us during contracts and such except to a steward. He went on to tell me all the truths and pointed out all the lies that the rep had told us.

They wanted to bring in accountants and look at the company books. I sided with the owner. It's his company and it ain't none of the unions business to be digging thru his books.

I've always done way better in non union jobs. Work and you shall receive.

[muggsy]

Hostess has been flirting with bankruptcy for the last decade, can't blame on Obama. Also, what kind of cuts were management planning to take. Probably none...

I don't much care for unions, but I try not to judge them till you know the whole story. Maybe they have been taking cuts for years now.. Don't know. I remember the year my company gave us across the board 10% pay cut because economic times were bad. Then we found out everyone manager level and above got a 20% bonus. I'm not talking CEO's, I'm talking rank and file managers which accounts for about 30% of the employee's. Basically they turned us upside down and shook out our pockets..

Obamacare was the straw that broke Hostess's back. Hostess asked the employees to take a cut so that they could afford to pay for the employees healthcare. Hostess wasn't in business to take a loss. That's what happens when you work on a thin profit margin. Hostess is only the first to go out of business. Thanks to government over regulation there will be many others. It's getting harder to find a doctor in private practice. They are all going to work for hospitals, because even doctors can no longer afford to hire a staff. That's what happens when the government takes over a business.

[CrabbyAzz]

Obamacare was the straw that broke Hostess's back. Hostess asked the employees to take a cut so that they could afford to pay for the employees healthcare. Hostess wasn't in business to take a loss. That's what happens when you work on a thin profit margin. Hostess is only the first to go out of business. Thanks to government over regulation there will be many others. It's getting harder to find a doctor in private practice. They are all going to work for hospitals, because even doctors can no longer afford to hire a staff. That's what happens when the government takes over a business.


In the business world it's survival of the fittest. Obviously the company is not managed well. Someone will buy them out and we will continue to enjoy our twinkies.

[jocko]

I feel for the working man. He screwed by the employer if there isn't a union and screwed by the union if he votes one in. I was treated much better in nonunion shops, but only because the threat of a union hung over them. I guess a man just does what he can. Sometimes to have to go along to get along.

muggsy I don't buy into that statement today... Its always the threat of a union shop that makes a non union business great. Pure B.S. IMO,

no offense to that either. justmy opinion.

[Longitude Zero]

Someone will buy them out and we will continue to enjoy our twinkies.

I doubt that and will be waiting to see if it occurs or not but I won't be holding my breath.

[TucsonMTB]

Guys, you can make the Union the boogie man if you want to. But, I ain't buying it. Here is an excerpt from a recent Forbes article. Like many things in life, it is not as simple as you think. http://www.forbes.com/sites/helaineolen/2012/11/16/who-killed-hostess-brands-and-twinkies/

---- Begin - Time for a reality check. ----

Hostess has been sold at least three times since the 1980s, racking up debt and shedding profitable assets along the way with each successive merger. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2004, and again in 2011. Little thought was given to the line of products, which, frankly, began to seem a bit dated in the age of the gourmet cupcake. (100 calorie Twinkie Bites (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hostess-100-Calorie-Pack-Twinkie-Bites-6ct/15556167)? When was the last time you entered Magnolia Bakery (http://www.magnoliabakery.com/home.php) and asked about the calorie count?)


As if all this were not enough, Hostess Brands’ management gave themselves several raises, all the while complaining that the workers who actually produced the products that made the firm what money it did earn were grossly overpaid relative to the company’s increasingly dismal financial position.

---- End - Time for a reality check. ----

Oh, and to make this gun related . . . We don't eat Twinkies and they make very poor targets. Penetration is good but nothing seems to expand. This may be a function of the soft filling. ;)

[jocko]

I doubt that and will be waiting to see if it occurs or not but I won't be holding my breath.

will be peace mealed out to alot of bakeries.. Wonder bread was their bread and butter product, it will certainly be bought up in name only. I would not look for anutter bread maker to buy their property etc That might add sme jobs back to, maybe not. If that business that buys um is union it will stay that way, ifit isn't u can bet it won't go union either, and more than likely they will start with a clean sheet to as far as emplopyee hiring goes. NOt sure I would want to hire any union people that just was part of a companies closing either.

It won't work out good for 80% of the employees, The twinkie name willbe bought by some maker. Its just a name like wonder bread. Not rocket scince tomake it or the other products they make either

I think more busines will follow Hostess in time . I read where Papa"s john day that they were to be boycotted due to their announcement, had their biggerst business day ever. Boyclott is just a word, nuttin more any more. Unions are the worst IMO. they picket the wal marts, targets, kmarts stores while they are being built but are the first through the fokkig doors when they open to buy the bargains. We could have killed the foreign car market years ago, buy just being loyal to american products. They came over here with at the time a better car put um on their lots for sale and so so many lined up to buy um. I don't blame the foregn car makers, we could have cut them off at the pass with virtually no government intervention what so ever. JUST DON'T BUY THE FOKKING PRODUCT... I do feel today that the american car is as good as most any foreighn maker but it is very hard to win um back once u loose them..:blah:

[CrabbyAzz]

Well said Tucson. You can't knee jerk react to headlines. When you look a little deeper the truth will be exposed.

[Longitude Zero]

I do feel today that the american car is as good as most any foreighn maker but it is very hard to win um back once u loose them..:blah:

Today this statement is pretty much corrrect. However for the previous 30+ years it is absolutely WRONG as the American auto industry built mostly bull shat. Facts are facts. There are foreign car builders that build vehicles FAR BETTER than you will ever see in the USA. ie. Rolls Royce, Aston Martin etc. They are however costly high end vehicles.

[jocko]

I think aston Martin closed their door to. course as u know the cars u mentioned are in a whole different classification to. Not sur ehow many Aston Martins one sees running around with over a 100K miles on it either, like u do on most other standard grade foreign cars..

Neither the Aston or Rolls could withstand a high production factory, as their sales are so low that it would not be cost efficient, even if the quality was the same. but ur right, we in the past really put out some sh!t cars here in america. We oppened the door for the foreign cars. VW started it all if one can remember back that far..

[OldLincoln]

Well, whoever's "fault" it was, look for the brand and recipes to be sold and a new bakery company in China to produce them. You can say corporate greed, cost of materials, manufacturing, transportation, or whatever but it is still reality and today's example of why America is loosing the economic battle. Do you know that China will become the NUMBER ONE economy within 2 years? The USA has held that title for a very long time but will not likely ever hold it again.

As a patriot that really hurts me. We talk about it all the time but this makes it real. And remember, China doesn't pay it's workers much or many benefits, but the USA sure buys a lot of stuff from them and is responsible for pushing them ahead of us.

If it's wrong here and people cry out what about the workers, why do they then walk into Walmart and load up on merchandise made by workers a whole lot worse off than the poor workers in the USA? It's like the environment. Gotta save the weeds and bugs here so lets force our industry to some country that destroys everything in it's way - like burning down the rain forest.

We simply cannot survive if we never learn to compromise to produce while protecting the environment what we can, certainly better than real third world countries. And when "treaties" come along protecting everything or taking away guns, see if China is signed up. They don't sign anything that may restrict them so the UN calls them a "developing country". My friend, they are quite well developed in case you haven't noticed.

[CrabbyAzz]

Well it's now a global economy. Jack Welch (ex CEO of GM) recently said his ideal factory would be on a barge so he could keep sailing it to the countries with the cheapest labor rates.

By the way, if not China it would be another undeveloped country. Our country once had the lowest paid workers and a great deal of natural resources. That's how we became great. A great show on the history channel is "the men who made America". Not a nice time for common laborers. Basically a Koch brothers fantasy.

[GROTMAN]

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/575059_10151244403818605_1410009427_n.jpg

[yqtszhj]

Well it's now a global economy. Jack Welch (ex CEO of GM) recently said his ideal factory would be on a barge so he could keep sailing it to the countries with the cheapest labor rates.

By the way, if not China it would be another undeveloped country. Our country once had the lowest paid workers and a great deal of natural resources. That's how we became great. A great show on the history channel is "the men who made America". Not a nice time for common laborers. Basically a Koch brothers fantasy.

Well, I kinda have to agree with Crabby on this. In particular the global economy. Trade agreements made sure of that. It was Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, and now China, Haiti, Indonesia, Philippines, India, etc...,

I still believe that if all Americans got up every morning, AND busted their butt to make a living for their self and make the country better, AND stood up for what was right, we would do all right. Unfortunately I think we are heading toward the Spain, Greece, or Mexico route due to a lot of bad decisions, people have had it easy, and we have raised more than a few kids with an entitlement attitude in the last 30 years.

I agree with Jocko and Bawanna that I can do better when my life depends on my performance and not a Union contract. Then my employment is based on my performance and not my seniority. The last couple of years Far exceeds and Role Model have kept me on top of the keeper list instead of the gotta let um go list.

I did really like that "Men who made America" series. Those guy's did make America great and in the end the workers and people in the country ended up better off due to the efforts of all involved. I have hope that one day we can do that again some how.

[eklipto101]

Washington and Colorado pass the ligalization of marijuana and now "NO MORE TWINKIES"...That's some bad junk.

[CrabbyAzz]

Washington and Colorado pass the ligalization of marijuana and now "NO MORE TWINKIES"...That's some bad junk.

Actually, that's a pretty good trade for several reasons.

1. Marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol (and no one ever gets mean or aggressive smoking grass).
2. Will generate lots of tax dollars.
3. Will save lots of tax dollars by not having to enforce marijuana laws or incarcerating people.
4. Will financially devastate south American drug lords when it's grown here.
5. Will give American farmers a nice cash crop.
6. Twinkies aren't that great any way.

[muggsy]

Baked goods are a highly competitive low profit margin business. What killed Hostess was the unions. When you have to have one group of drivers to deliver the bread and another group to deliver the cakes and two more groups of union people to load and unload the products, because union work rules won't allow the drivers to load and unload their own trucks the business becomes very labor intensive. I can't think of any business that ever was started with the goal of failing.

[CrabbyAzz]

I've seen a lot of ill conceived and poorly run businesses.

My favorite is a local couple that opened a small restaurant. A business that definitely requires people skills and good food. These two know nothing about food and actually hate their customers. I never meet two people with less people skills. They struggled about a year before closing. They couldn't figure out why they couldn't make it.

[jocko]

WTF, walk through any of these malls and write down some of the business that are there now and a year later are gone. Nuttin new to poor run businesses. That sh!t happens.

Hell there is right now a kiosck in our big mall here and they are selling TIES. WTF. 50% of the people are men, and 90% of them don't wear ties. that little tie area will be gone in no time. The little corner restaurants are going by the wayside like the mom and pop filling stations.

Most of those little mom and pop business'sfallunde rthe same government regs as the big business do and it is just so tuff to keep up with all the new regs.

Hell just look at allthe small town main streets. THERE DEAD and they were all mom and Pop pLAces of some sort It is just so so easy to drive to sears and drop your car of there and get 4 tires put on it and a lube job and sit down in one of the restaurants within sears or right next to it and eating dinner while u get ur car service and then home u go, never to return for anutter week or two or go to Costco and do the same thing and while ur at it buy ur weeks supply of groceries at a much better and fresher price than the corner grocery store who cannot even compete in price let alone the variety's offered..

[CrabbyAzz]

Hell there is right now a kiosck in our big mall here and they are selling TIES. WTF. 50% of the people are men, and 90% of them don't wear ties. that little tie area will be gone in no time.

I would have liked to see their business model? Maybe they thought ties must be hard to get, since they don't see people wearing them anymore!!!

[jocko]

how about JUST COMMON SENSE!!

[OldLincoln]

1. The Mexican Drug Cartel is very alive and flourishing in CA and OR. They are already taking over American growers and establishing acres of grass. The DEA cannot keep up them and won't until they get aerial surveillance that can pick up crops in areas hacked out of woods. The feds won't fund that.

2. Businesses fail for a variety of reasons, but most come down to planing, funding, product and location. I've seen many startups that I know won't make it a year before they ever open their doors. Of course that's an even bet because 50% of all startups fail within the first year.

Funding is a big hitter. Anybody that opens the door without at least a year's funding at zero sales is already short. Too many think they will immediately have the sales to pay operating costs and they do for the first month or so then they slowly bleed to death digging in their pocket a little each month.

So, if they want to make it they need to add a little hash to their vegiburgers; a little coke to their cokes; and grass to the lettuce. Guaranteed big winner right there. They can call it "Orgasmic Cafe".

[Chief Joseph]

good post great one. If Hoffa was such a great union guy and not a slug, he would not be under some driveway today. Trrumpka is no different either, course one big difference waS when Hoffa talked he was talking in front of 50,000 union people. today guys like trumka are talking to 100 give our take and most of those are ordered to be there even. this Hostess thing will set the unions back even more years. they ain't history yet but theire story very shortly will be something like "ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS THESE GROUPS OF PEOPLE WHO CALLED THEMSELVES UNION PEOPLE, yadda yadda yadda. There was an article in USA about a week ago that stated the 30 states that have the RIGHT TO WORK LAW, has hired more people in the past 5 years than the other 20 states in the past . Does that tell anyone anything??? I don't know, just askin. U can read into it ahything u want

a young entreprenaur and two others 2 years ago francised a KY fried chickena nd taco bell under the same roof, u-p on the hillby our local \wal-mart. I was talking to him yesterday abou the economyt etc and he siad, when they started business they hired 47 peole to work there, today 2 years later only 2 of the original are left. He siad so many came in higher than akite, some sold drugs inside the business, some were drunk, some stole. He said this busines venture was the worst investment he ever made, not that they did not have two good products, but help was just the pits.. and tho thinbk he was sharing the profits withg two other partners, ..

I wish I could agree that unions would disappear, but with public employee unions the only way is collapse of the country. What you've just seen with Hostess is exactly the same attitude the public employee unions will have about the collapse of the country. That is why they are the ultimate evil and an enemy to us. Even if you elect a Conservative willing to go to war with them and reign them in, there's always some leftist judge violating the law to over rule and push the union agenda. Unfortunately, after this last election, too many of this country does not deserve a free America.

[Chief Joseph]

In the business world it's survival of the fittest. Obviously the company is not managed well. Someone will buy them out and we will continue to enjoy our twinkies.

That's the problem, once a union is involved, there is nothing left you can manage. The "fittest" companies are NON UNION. No one will invest in these selfish scumbag jobs other than nobama. He'll do it, he loves economic failures.

[jocko]

u ight be righ but I am refering to the american business end . uNIPON ARE LESS THAN 8%OF THE CUNTRYSLABOR FORCE. tHEIR DONE, Government unions arenopt supposed to strikeeither, and they don't. (i. e. airline controllers in Regans era).

but ur point is good. I can't argue that

[Chief Joseph]

Baked goods are a highly competitive low profit margin business. What killed Hostess was the unions. When you have to have one group of drivers to deliver the bread and another group to deliver the cakes and two more groups of union people to load and unload the products, because union work rules won't allow the drivers to load and unload their own trucks the business becomes very labor intensive. I can't think of any business that ever was started with the goal of failing.

Absolutely. Unions are literally destroying this country.

[Chief Joseph]

Guys, you can make the Union the boogie man if you want to. But, I ain't buying it. Here is an excerpt from a recent Forbes article. Like many things in life, it is not as simple as you think. http://www.forbes.com/sites/helaineolen/2012/11/16/who-killed-hostess-brands-and-twinkies/

---- Begin - Time for a reality check. ----

Hostess has been sold at least three times since the 1980s, racking up debt and shedding profitable assets along the way with each successive merger. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2004, and again in 2011. Little thought was given to the line of products, which, frankly, began to seem a bit dated in the age of the gourmet cupcake. (100 calorie Twinkie Bites (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hostess-100-Calorie-Pack-Twinkie-Bites-6ct/15556167)? When was the last time you entered Magnolia Bakery (http://www.magnoliabakery.com/home.php) and asked about the calorie count?)


As if all this were not enough, Hostess Brands’ management gave themselves several raises, all the while complaining that the workers who actually produced the products that made the firm what money it did earn were grossly overpaid relative to the company’s increasingly dismal financial position.

---- End - Time for a reality check. ----

Oh, and to make this gun related . . . We don't eat Twinkies and they make very poor targets. Penetration is good but nothing seems to expand. This may be a function of the soft filling. ;)

Each and every one of those poor union employees were free to take their money and start up their own baking company. That's what America is supposed to be about, make your own opportunities. Instead they banded together and shut it down. What management does is NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS. If they don't like it QUIT. Management salary is the business of their share holders/owners, not the unionized employees. Just because you do a job that any monkey can do and get hired to do it, doesn't mean you're ENTITLED to anything. That is the attitude that's ruining this country. The girl who authored this article is clearly a biased union supporter. If I had to deal with over the top unions I'd need a raise too.

[Chief Joseph]

http://www.unionfacts.com/union/Bakery%2C_Confectionary%2C_Tobacco_Workers_%26_Gra in_Millers

Here is some info on the union leaders and their salaries. Their greed not to be confused with the "managers of the company's" greed. Even though they are the ones who actually run the company. To sum up a little

Top Ten Highest Paid Leaders
Name Title Total Compensation
FRANK HURT PRESIDENT $262,654.00
DAVID DURKEE SECRETARY-TREASURER $244,396.00
JOSEPH THIBODEAU EXEC VICE PRESIDENT $218,989.00
STEVE BERTELLI VICE PRESIDENT $198,062.00
MICHAEL KONESKO VICE PRESIDENT $184,297.00
ARTHUR MONTMINY VICE PRESIDENT $175,505.00
ANTHONY JOHNSON VICE PRESIDENT $167,433.00
ROBERT OAKLEY VICE PRESIDENT $167,265.00
RANDY ROARK VICE PRESIDENT $166,849.00
SEAN KELLY VICE PRESIDENT $161,789.00

[Chief Joseph]

u ight be righ but I am refering to the american business end . uNIPON ARE LESS THAN 8%OF THE CUNTRYSLABOR FORCE. tHEIR DONE, Government unions arenopt supposed to strikeeither, and they don't. (i. e. airline controllers in Regans era).

but ur point is good. I can't argue that

The airline controllers did strike and it took a strong leader like Reagan to end it. The same thing done under nobama? I can guarantee you nobama will give them everything they want. We're living under different times. The raging demonstrations in greece are their unionized public employees. They're the ones raging, killing and burning the country. That is our future. The public employees ARE the occupiers. It's only going to get worse.

[JFootin]

http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee486/John_England/Smilies/2b24a5800a5b0130fac9001dd8b71c47.gif

[muggsy]

washington and colorado pass the ligalization of marijuana and now "no more twinkies"...that's some bad junk.


legalizing gay marriage and marijuana at the same time makes sense
now, biblically. In leviticus 20:13, it says, "A man that lieth down with another man as with a woman should be stoned". I guess we've just been interpreting this biblical passage wrong all this time. :)