And this is why unions are an anachronism

Anyone remember this.

Hostess shuttering doors, ending era of iconic brands

Hostess CEO says strike was fatal blow for bankrupt company and that it is too late to fix it. Nearly 600 could lose jobs in Schiller Park and Hodgkins bakeries.

Chris Pruitt, an employee of a Hostess plant in Peoria, strikes with other employees in
front of the Hostess Brands plant in Schiller Park. (Keri Wiginton, Chicago Tribune)

Fear not for the Twinkie. In all likelihood it will outlive us all.

The same cannot be said for Hostess Brands, the bankrupt baker responsible for Twinkies, Wonder Bread and other goods. The company said Friday it has asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to go out of business and lay off 18,500 workers, blaming a labor strike by members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.

In the Chicago area, Hostess employs about 300 workers making CupCakes, HoHos and Honey Buns in Schiller Park. Hostess also has a bakery in Hodgkins, where 325 workers make Beefsteak, Butternut, Home Pride, Nature's Pride and Wonder breads. The company's connection to Chicago is more than crust or frosting deep: the Twinkie was invented in the Chicago area in 1930....

Like man industries, unions will not make concessions and the results? The workers, whose interest they notionally represent, are unemployed. I wonder what the union leadership is doing right now? I'll bet they are no in the unemployment roll.

Fast forward a half year.

Hostess Reopening Plants, Without Union Workers

The bankrupt assets of Hostess Brands, Inc., the company responsible for Twinkies, Ho Ho's, Sno Balls and Ding Dongs, are being put back to work by a buyout firm. What's not being put back to work are the former Hostess unionized employees.

The unionized workers had been on strike when the company folded late last year.

The company had imposed a contract that would cut its 19,000 workers' wages — 15,000 of whom belonged to the workers from the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) — by 8 percent. (The Teamsters was Hostess' largest union, followed by BCTGM.) The contract would have also cut benefits by 27 to 32 percent.

Hostess filed for Chapter 11 in January 2012. In November 2012, the company announced it would be shutting its doors for good. By that time, it had lost about $1.1 billion, largely due to bankruptcy filings.

But last month Apollo Global Management, LLC, and Metropoulos & Co., which owns Pabst Blue Ribbon and Vlasic pickles, bought the 83-year-old company for $410 million, renaming it Hostess Brands LLC. It is planning to re-open four bakeries over the next two and a half months, in Columbus, Ga.; Emporia, Kan.; Schiller Park, Ill.; and Indianapolis. It is also contemplating a fifth in Los Angeles.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, C. Dean Metropoulos, the company's chief executive, said that between now and September, he plans to inject $60 million in capital investments into the plants, and hopes to hire at least 1,500 workers.

But those workers won't be unionized.

"It appears that they are discharging the union contract in bankruptcy," said Matthew A. Kaufman, a labor attorney in Los Angeles who is not affiliated with the case.

While Metropoulos did not respond to interview requests from ABC News, he told the Journal that he does "not expect to be involved in the union going forward."...

Sixty million put into a more efficient company, over 1500 new employees working and putting more product on the market more efficiently. What is missing? The union.

Unions still serve a purpose but they seemed locked into an eighteenth century mindset of sweatshops, etc. Sorry, the world has moved forward. There is competition and technology that has made production of all types of items more efficient.

I posted last year on how Harley Davidson had to tell it's union either work with us on modernizing our factory in York PA or we're out of here. This union had it's head out of its ass and compromised. Results include the factory still there, employees (granted fewer) still there and Harley Davidson still operating.

To the soon to be employed in for Hostess, and others, have a great weekend.