The war on supervillainy just got a lot harder.

Hostess Brands closing for good

Quote:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Hostess Brands -- the maker of such iconic baked goods as Twinkies, Devil Dogs and Wonder Bread -- announced Friday that it is asking a federal bankruptcy court for permission to close its operations, blaming a strike by bakers protesting a new contract imposed on them. The closing will result in Hostess' nearly 18,500 workers losing their jobs as the company shuts 33 bakeries and 565 distribution centers nationwide, as well as 570 outlet stores. The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union represents around 5,000 Hostess employees. "We deeply regret the necessity of today's decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike," said CEO Gregory Rayburn in a statement. Hostess will move to sell its assets to the highest bidder. That could mean new life for some of its most popular products, which could be scooped up at auction and attached to products from other companies. A letter that Hostess sent to its network of stores that carry its product said it expects "there will be great interest in our brands." But it said it could not give a time frame for when the sales would take place and its products would be available again. But even if those brands are bought and restarted, the Hostess workers will not get their jobs back. "The industry has overcapacity. We're overcapacity. Our rivals are overcapacity," said Rayburn in an interview on CNBC. Asked if the shutdown decision could be reversed if the Bakers' union agreed to immediately return to work, he responded, "Too late." While approval of the bankruptcy court is needed before the company can start selling its assets in liquidation, the company said production at all of its bakeries has ceased effective Friday, and that stores will no longer receive products from Hostess Brands after the final round of deliveries of products that were made Thursday night. But products that are already in stores can be sold, and the outlet stores will remain open for about a week to sell the products they already have. (more at link)

Bad enough that City of Heroes is closing. But this..... this will let the villains run on a rampage.

<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison

Sonuva....now another thing to stock up on!

*opens empty wallet*

;.;

Edit - Well...so much for that idea. My area doesn't have a Hostess distributor (Little Debbie everywhere tho). No profiting on eBay for me...

Though I haven't touched a Twinkie or a Ding-Dong in quite a long time, I will still miss them!

But just like Hostess purchased the Zinger brand when Dolly Madison went kaput, so too I think Bimbo Bakeries will pick up these brands. Bimbo's gotten pretty danged big these days and they already own several other American brands.

And once again, unions destroy a business.

I used to work for Eastern Airlines. Lucky for me that the computer division was separated out before that and we still had jobs.


"We cannot work too hard, else the company will not hire more people to pay union dues". - pretty much sums up what a former co-worker (he had transferred to the computer division where I was working) found out when working in the hangar by actually doing the work he was assigned in the time frame given.

Nearly 1500 auctions on eBay for twinkies now. Right now those with bids are around $1-2 per cake. But there are some crazy people who have BiN prices of $90 for a box of 10. Then you have the downright silly ones asking for (pinkie to lip) one MILLION dollars.

There are other Hostess products up for auction but Twinkies are the big one.

Bankruptcy judge sets up new contracts for all the unions. Only one union, without asking permission first from the Teamsters, go on strike because they didn't like what the judge set up. It's their "we are staying out on principle" now put them and over 18,000 out of work before the winter Holidays. I wouldn't want to be a member of the baker's union when the other unions show up to lynch them.

Joker clap.

More food for thought, for all you union haters (I must assume you all sit on mountains of money while shining your monocles or something...):

The union's side of the story:

http://bctgm.org/category/hostess-strike/

If that link's giving you an error, try here:
http://ronniedobbs.tumblr.com/post/3...ul-information

is there protest against Hostess now on the other side?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mauk2 Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words. "Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L!

For your perusal:

If Clinton was still president, he'd offer them a bailout.

If Obama tries that, his heath-nut wife will slap him.

I've seen both unions and management make some pretty boneheaded demands at various jobs I've had so I've learned not to listen to the propaganda from either side. The truth almost always lies somewhere between what each side is claiming.

The bakers union accounted for only 5000 jobs and it only took a majority of them to put 18,500 people out of work. The remaining union members were Teamsters and they weren't consulted when the bakers walked out last week. They took the pay cut.

If the bakers were unhappy, they could have just quit, the outcome would be the same for them without dragging everyone else down with them. But hey, spread the suffering.

Yes, Hostess has been managed terribly for years. But you don't mutiny a ship while it's sinking. Everyone goes down.

I figure within a year we'll be seeing Twinkies again, after it's brand gets bought at auction by PepsiCo or one of the other super food conglomerates. Hostess also owned Drakes and a lot of other brands that they accumulated over the years. There is going to be a lot of freed up shelf space at the market over the next few months.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some of the anti-managment bias being presented in this thread stems from raw nerves over the way this game was shut down.