Twinkies Are Back; Less Union Thug Cream Filling

The Hostess brand is valuable. Everyone knew that Wonder Bread and Twinkies would come back. And it did. But now there are about 16,000 less union thugs to drag the new company down. If you remember, the teamsters and bakers union voted to destroy the Hostess company rather than allow a restructuring and wage reduction. So instead of having jobs those union looters are out of work.

From WTKR here:

Twinkies are back in stores. But most of the jobs of the people that make them won’t be returning any time soon.
There were 18,500 people working for Hostess Brands when the company went bankrupt in November, making Twinkies, Wonder Bread and a variety of other brands.

But only about 20% to 25% of those jobs will end up returning when all the brands are up and running again.

Typically, companies that buy iconic brands like those produced by Hostess invest in equipment and machinery to replace laborers — which is why the jobs aren’t coming back.

Hostess had two main unions when it went under: About 6,600 employees were members of a bakers’ union and worked at 33 bakeries nationwide, and 7,500 were drivers who belonged to the Teamsters union.

Hostess announced plans to liquidate in November after offering workers a new contract with reduced wages and benefits. The Teamsters accepted the deal, but the bakers’ union rejected it. Hostess management blamed the bakers for forcing the company to shut down.

Some of the reduction in jobs is also due to the new owners’ different business model.

Instead of using truck drivers as salesmen to deliver the product and stock the shelves of about 50,000 stores, the new company will hire outside trucking firms to deliver trailers full of the product to retail distribution centers.

So hostess is going to go the sensible route of regional distribution. Makes good sense to me. Wal-Mart has been doing that type of distribution for years. Makes me think that if Hostess had changed its business model years ago it wouldn’t have had to go out of business. Good to hear that the majority of bakers and twinkie truck drivers won’t be allowed back.