SRL Archive - News and General

Hostess Brands, known famously for their 'twinkies' and 'Devil Dogs' have closed their doors, and is laying off 18,000 workers because of a strike that earlier this week. The head of the company warned workers that if the strike did not stop, the company would go out of business. Workers did not let that stop them and continued striking, until earlier today when news was broken about the going out of business.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/why-didnt-hostess-workers-believe-the-threats/2012/11/16/0638138e-302f-11e2-a30e-5ca76eeec857_story.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-hostess-brands-seeks-court-permission-to-liquidate-20121116,0,3175964.story

My twinkies. D:

Now they all lost and there's no one to blame. Sucks for them.

what will I eat now?

From: NKN
My twinkies. D:

This is the first thing that came to my mind.

Well I suppose they were warned. =/

Thought Twinkies survived nuclear holocausts?
Guess not

Twinkies might, the company does not. It's a sad day for snackers everywhere :'(

Wait, there was only 1 factory?

From: TehNeonFishy
Wait, there was only 1 factory?

No, all of the factories are closing I believe.
Meh someone else will create them I am sure…someone will buy the rights.

For the love of Twinkies… NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

my.. my… my twinkes D:

And the unemployment rate continues to increase…

i wonder.. do unions ever try to do anything constructive to help both the company and the workers?

InB4 chinese knock-off twinkies appear under the name "Twinkees" and no one is around to sue them :P

From: slushpuppy
i wonder.. do unions ever try to do anything constructive to help both the company and the workers?

Short Answer: Sometimes, but most of the time there is just a lot of tooling around.

From: euphemism
Short Answer: Sometimes, but most of the time there is just a lot of tooling around.

bad management should be tackled head on, rather than striking, unions should be more involved in the company.

From: slushpuppy
bad management should be tackled head on, rather than striking, unions should be more involved in the company.

I never mentioned anything about bad management, but yes, striking isn't exactly the best way to deal with bad management. Unions should be more involved in the company? No. Absolutely not. The goal of a union is to help workers get their proper dues, and to help ensure that the workers are not being slighted by the company; however, many times it can be seen that unions simply extort as much out of a company as possible. In the case of Hostess, whether there was poor management or not, the situation was such that Hostess was going to have to close its doors unless it cut that 8% out of wages. The unionized workers clearly thought that Hostess would somehow be able to pull that money out of its ass and appease them. Money doesn't grow on trees, and the limits to what a union can get away with were shown.

From: euphemism
I never mentioned anything about bad management, but yes, striking isn't exactly the best way to deal with bad management. Unions should be more involved in the company? No. Absolutely not. The goal of a union is to help workers get their proper dues, and to help ensure that the workers are not being slighted by the company; however, many times it can be seen that unions simply extort as much out of a company as possible. In the case of Hostess, whether there was poor management or not, the situation was such that Hostess was going to have to close its doors unless it cut that 8% out of wages. The unionized workers clearly thought that Hostess would somehow be able to pull that money out of its ass and appease them. Money doesn't grow on trees, and the limits to what a union can get away with were shown.

"more involved in the company" - is to ensure that both the workers' and company's health are in order. There needs to be a balance on both ends.

The famous stereotype of fat american kids eating twinkies is gone!!

What is going to happen to the world!

America voted for it, now we have to live with it - Obama and Big Unions. A clear case of biting off your own hand to spite someone else. The union wouldn't even let Twinkies and bread made by the same company, at the same bakery, be shipped together thus driving up costs, wouldn't compromise on anything, and now 18,500 more jobs gone. What's next from the Unions who are "looking out for us"? Maybe a country wide strike so everyone will be out of work? Greece - Here we come!

From: BMWxi
InB4 chinese knock-off twinkies appear under the name "Twinkees" and no one is around to sue them :P

hahahaha definately going to happen.

Look how crazy it has gotten..

I'm poor so I eat these:

From: Jakee
Look how crazy it has gotten..

Irl Mint Cakes before the Gnome Restaurant Update? :P

ahaha serves them right!

as echo_ has already pointed out, there are twinkie substitutes such as the generic brand and you guys know what else? Little debbie already makes the same snack cakes that hostess did… such as Cloud Cakes (http://www.littledebbie.com/products/cloudcakes.asp)

Wow..18,000 workers screwed themselves .
like, I hate my job to, but If I was told I'm going to loose my job,
I'd straighten up.

Ill probably buy a box of Twinkies tonight for old times sake…. hope someone here in the USA buys tyhe rights to them and the Twinkies name…sorta an American icon in a sense…

From: mike-gee420
Wow..18,000 workers screwed themselves .
like, I hate my job to, but If I was told I'm going to loose my job,
I'd straighten up.

I guess it dealt with the influence of your coworkers. Im assuming there are workers who have worked for hostess for over 15 years. That is a lot of time to socialize and maintain a good friendship. Now if one of those friends decided to strike, others would join along. In fact, most of the workers have been working for hostess for over 20 years. Thats a lot of time, and they probably thought striking as a somewhat big group would work. Unfortunately it didn't.

I honestly don't think I've ever had a twinkie in my lifetime O.o

I heard that they are going to get saved because 'BIMBO' wants to buy them.

From: Silentcore
I heard that they are going to get saved because 'BIMBO' wants to buy them.

That seems good. Hope I get to taste one :q

lmao, seems like an epic fail from the employees to understand the situation and also a failure from the company to explain things.

Rumor has it that Walmart worker's are going to go on strike because they have to work on thanksgiving. My thought on that was in order to strike they have to set up a picket line correct? Well good luck getting a day off when you have to picket :)

On hostess. The workers and unions are entirely at fault. The company basically said here is what has to happen for us to stay in business and keep everyone with jobs. The people didn't agree so they basically all lost except the company owners. The owner's will make money off the sell off of equipment and facilities Ensuring that they can survive. The workers that went pay check to pay check basic screwed themselves.