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The End of The Twinkies Saga? Mediation fails to save an American icon and 18,500 jobs

By: LaborUnionReport (Diary)  |  November 20th, 2012 at 08:15 PM  | 

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The following is an update on the not-so spectacular demise of an American icon.


Following last Friday’s announcement that iconic Twinkies maker Hostess would be shutting down due to the bakery union strike, the story was beginning to sound a lot like another saga that never seems to end. The judge overseeing Hostess’ bankruptcy ordered a mediation to occur between the company and the union responsible for striking the fatal blow to the Cupcake King. That mediation has failed.

While production had remained shut down since Friday, it now appears the company (and 18,500 jobs) are headed for liquidation.

Hostess Brands Inc. announced today that a mediation today with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union was unsuccessful. The Company will have no further comment until a hearing scheduled for tomorrow at 11 a.m., EST, before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Unless some yet-to-be named conglomerate steps in to buy the bankrupt banker, along with its liabilities–or Barack Obama nationalizes the Twinkie industry–it looks like this is the end for Hostess and 18,500 mostly-union jobs.

Yet another success story written into the annals of union history.

Related:

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COMMENTS

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  • gunnyg2002

    Unions remind me of a squirrel that I saw once, covered in ticks. It could hardly move as they had drained it. I put it out of its misery and burned it.

    Unions are no different than the ticks.

  • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

    Bimbo probably can’t buy Hostess due to the amount of brands it already owns:

    http://www.bimbobakeriesusa.com/

    And this…

    Hostess CEO Says Sale to Grupo Bimbo a ‘Misconception’

    …“One misconception in the market is that Bimbo would be a buyer and bakery leadership told us in several plants that Bimbo would come in and buy, which is absurd,” Rayburn said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

    Rayburn cited Bimbo’s agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to sell some Sara Lee brands in order to complete its acquisition of Sara Lee’s North American bakery business.

    “Due to antitrust, it would never happen,” Rayburn said.

  • dajeeps

    I wonder how much the pension guarantee program has to do with the outcome for Hostess. I read that $900M+ of the $1.7B debt cited in the bankruptcy filing was for employee pensions; and that should have been a significant motivator to the unions to ensure the company’s financial survival – but it didn’t appear to work out that way. I don’t know the details about adjustments to the pension program under bankruptcy, but if they were going to get the same or getter deal from the guarantee program, it might have made sense for them to not be flexible of wages and benefits. Not that they anticipated ending up with no job, just that there might be perverse incentives to push the envelope too far.

  • DerKrieger

    I work with a lot of Mexican nationals, college grads, and the tell me it’s pronounced “Beembo”.