What's new
By:
Filters

Yup, unions are awesome!

vczzhi.jpg
 
I'd really like to get someone else's take on this other than Hostess Management.

Who the hell else are they gonna blame for going belly up? Certainly not themselves..

I found one article on Politico which had some quotes from the leader of the AFL-CIO.

https://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83979.html

LOL - look at the picture of the guy that they deemed appropriate to a accompany the article. He looks like Yosemite Sam on Meth. Thank God the liberal media is on the case.

He also looks like he downed a few Twinkies in his day. Something tells me we're not getting the whole story yet.
 
The Thriller said:
When all else fails, blame a union.

Hostess should have adjusted to the market. Twinkies and cupcakes just aren't as popular as they once were. Just look at Krispy Kreme. When I was in HS, everyone ate'em. But now that craze is over. Today? I don't know of anyone who eats Krispy Kreme.
Click to expand...

LOL - I actually think it's the opposite. This country is completely saturated with fat ****s and the market is completely saturated with fat **** foods. Just take a walk down the junk food aisle in your local supermarket. Hostess could no longer handle or evolve with the competition. They've been making the same crap for 90 years.

I wouldn't worry though - "Hostess" isn't going anywhere. This name brand recognition is way too high. Someone will buy it up.
 
I think the Hostess Outlet Store actually put them out of business. I honestly can't ever remember seeing a Twinkie box without a big black marker check mark on the outside or just some messed up looking Hostess Fruit Pies in everyone's cupboards. That place might as well have been Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory to the kids in my neighborhood growing up.
 
So does anybody actually like their products? I ate 'em aplenty as a kid, but I don't think I ever really liked the taste, just the fun of my little eating games. With Snoballs and Cupcakes, I liked to peel the icing/topping off and save it for last. If I felt like a real challenge, I would first try to peel the white icing squiggle intact off the top of the cupcake. With Twinkies, I would either try to suck out all the creme filling before eating the cake portion, or try to eat all the cake and leave the creme for last.

So did/does anyone have any favorite eating methods?
 
candrew said:
LOL - I actually think it's the opposite. This country is completely saturated with fat ****s and the market is completely saturated with fat **** foods. Just take a walk down the junk food aisle in your local supermarket. Hostess could no longer handle or evolve with the competition. They've been making the same crap for 90 years.

I wouldn't worry though - "Hostess" isn't going anywhere. This name brand recognition is way too high. Someone will buy it up.
Click to expand...

And make it profitable by not paying their workers what hostess was paying theirs.
 
Does anyone appreciate the irony that just as Hostess is going out of business, pot is becoming legal in more and more states?
 
not really anything new here, but I did think it was interesting how they attribute all the additives in our food to the under-utilized capacity of the chemical industry after WWII ended

https://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-18/news/ct-met-twinkie-ode-20121118_1_twinkie-ingredient-twinkle-toe-shoes-james-dewar

...But the tasty cakes originally made with milk and eggs had a shelf life of two or three days. By the 1940s, postwar America was pushing hard for consumer convenience and had a huge chemical capacity surplus from the war effort, Ettlinger said.

That combination led food scientists to find new uses for, among other chemical concoctions, polysorbate 60. The petroleum-based egg yolk substitute includes a toxic gas used to thicken paint and rocket fuel, Ettlinger said. Polysorbate 60 also happens to be a Twinkie ingredient.

As food processing evolved, the composition of Twinkies expanded to include artificial butter flavor, high-fructose corn syrup, calcium sulfate and sodium stearoyl lactylate, to name a few. Today Twinkies include about 40 ingredients....
Click to expand...
 
Here's a great article on the Hostess situation that everyone should read:
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/18/1162786/-Inside-the-Hostess-Bankery#

Some highlights:
Top wage was cut from $48,000 in 2005 to $34,000 ($16.12 per hour) last year. The company's latest proposal was to cut it again to $25,000 ($11.26 per hour).
The pension was entirely self funded. The company "borrowed" it and never paid it back.
The company's proposal included doubling insurance premiums while lowering the overall quality of the health plan.
The company's latest proposal included canceling all future pension plan participation.
6 CEOs since 2002, all left the company worse than when they took over, yet all got paid in full plus raises and huge bonuses. The current CEO aready announced he was leaving less than a year into the job, before he even offered the company's final proposal.
One CEO "leaked" a letter saying the company had the best quarter in history. He then sold all of his stock, and released an updated letter saying the company was in big trouble. He resigned, but was brought back on as a consultant.
 
SaltyDawg said:
Here's a great article on the Hostess situation that everyone should read:
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/18/1162786/-Inside-the-Hostess-Bankery#

Some highlights:
Top wage was cut from $48,000 in 2005 to $34,000 ($16.12 per hour) last year. The company's latest proposal was to cut it again to $25,000 ($11.26 per hour).
The pension was entirely self funded. The company "borrowed" it and never paid it back.
The company's proposal included doubling insurance premiums while lowering the overall quality of the health plan.
The company's latest proposal included canceling all future pension plan participation.
6 CEOs since 2002, all left the company worse than when they took over, yet all got paid in full plus raises and huge bonuses. The current CEO aready announced he was leaving less than a year into the job, before he even offered the company's final proposal.
One CEO "leaked" a letter saying the company had the best quarter in history. He then sold all of his stock, and released an updated letter saying the company was in big trouble. He resigned, but was brought back on as a consultant.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a top notch brand
 
SaltyDawg said:
Yeah, I'm sure it's all the unions' fault that hostess makes some of the most unhealthy food you can get.

I'm sure the execs who made the decision to not sell anything healthy, even when America was clearly moving towards healthier eating, took the same cuts they are asking the bakers to take, right?

I don't know the specifics behind this strike. I do know that all of the things hostess is famous for, are things I wouldn't let my kids eat all the time. And that is certainly not something that can be blamed on the bakers union.
Click to expand...


Hostess was more than snack foods. They offered a variety of healthy, whole grain breads. As far as the baker's union... I hope every one of those ******** that voted for the strike lose their homes(and everything else, for that matter) for putting the rest of us out of a job. Their last offer to Hostess was to fire the Teamsters(transport drivers, RSR's, and go to IO's in order to pay the bakers more money to push a button after loading pre-measured ingredients.
 
Red Jazz Fan said:
I hope every one of those ******** that voted for the strike lose their homes(and everything else, for that matter) ...
Click to expand...

How bad does a company have to be, in order for the workers to prefer closing it down to taking a pay cut? You're right, the workers are risking their homes. Perhaps they felt it's worth the risk, or perhaps they felt they would lose their homes even ifr Hostess stayed open.
 
One Brow said:
How bad does a company have to be, in order for the workers to prefer closing it down to taking a pay cut? You're right, the workers are risking their homes. Perhaps they felt it's worth the risk, or perhaps they felt they would lose their homes even ifr Hostess stayed open.
Click to expand...

If they've already taken a huge cut, then they are asked to take another cut? They were probably promised the first time something along those lines and it never materialized. I'm sure they knew the executives probably took less of a cut and still got their bonuses while they are all taking a huge hit.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
The more I hear about this, the more I side with the employees.

They probably have already risked their homes or lost their homes with the huge pay cuts and another pay cut would be just as bad or worse than unemployment.

What's not to say the company would follow through with the raises and wouldn't ask for even more cuts later?
 
There was an 8% cut across the board with give backs in the years to follow. 92%>0%. If I wasn't headed out job hunting I would post the entire proposed(ratified by Teamsters) contract.
 
Red Jazz Fan said:
There was an 8% cut across the board with give backs in the years to follow. 92%>0%. If I wasn't headed out job hunting I would post the entire proposed(ratified by Teamsters) contract.
Click to expand...

After the 30% cuts in 2005, loss of pension in all reality, no pension for new employees, double cost on health insurance with less benefit... it all adds up.

There's more to it than just one number.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top