“Union Wins, Company Dies.”

Ding Dongs, GONE! Twinkies, GONE! Honey Buns, GONE! HoHo's, GONE!

Say it isn't so. Yes it is so, Hostess is going away and the 30 brands they own.

The company plans to go out of business, lay off its 18,500 workers, and sell its snack cake and bread brands. Hostess claims a nationwide strike crippled its ability to make and deliver its products.

“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.

The Irving, Texas, company suspended bakery operations at all its factories and said its stores will remain open for several days to sell already-baked products.

The company had warned employees that it would file a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to unwind its business and sell assets if plant operations didn’t return to normal levels by Thursday evening. The privately held company filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, its second trip through bankruptcy court in less than a decade.

“Many people have worked incredibly long and hard to keep this from happening, but now Hostess Brands has no other alternative than to begin the process of winding down and preparing for the sale of our iconic brands,” Rayburn said.

He added that all employees will eventually lose their jobs, “some sooner than others.”

“Unfortunately, because we are in bankruptcy, there are severe limits on the assistance the (company) can offer you at this time,” Rayburn wrote.

Thousands of members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike last week after rejecting in September a contract offer that cut wages and benefits. Hostess said Friday the company is unprofitable “under its current cost structure, much of which is determined by union wages and pension costs.”

Hostess has said that production at about a dozen of the company’s 33 plants has been seriously affected by the strike. Three plants were closed earlier this week.

Hostess had already reached a contract agreement with its largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The company, founded in 1930, was fighting battles beyond labor costs. Competition is increasing in the snack space and Americans are increasingly conscious about healthy eating. Hostess also makes Dolly Madison, Drake’s and, Nature’s Pride snacks.

I am sure that Nanny Bloomberg and Righteous Rahm are overjoyed with this. The headline should be “Union Wins, Company Dies.”

You just gotta love this little irony too. Hostess was run by…wait for it…PRIVATE EQUITY. Oh boy, so it must be one of those evil Romney, Bain Capital dirtbags right? Ha! It was run by Ripplewood which is headed by Tim Collins….A DEMOCRAT with ties to Dick Gephardt. LOL. So country club liberal elites end up throwing the knucklehead useful idiot collectivists under the bus? Gee, never see that do ya?

Union leaders would rather take the rank and file out on strike and risk job loss due to failure of the company than to lose control of the rank and file by allowing the rank and file to accept the deal they need in order to remain employed and for the company to remain viable.

As is always the case in these situations, the rank and file loses their jobs while the union leadership continues to draw their nice big paychecks and benefits packages. The union leadership then comes out publicly and tells the rank and file, and anyone else who they can get to listen (e.g. mainstream media) that the whole situation is the fault of ownership/management. And the minions believe it.

When people in this country wake up and realize who is paying the bills here, then this mindset will disappear and we can get back to being a productive nation. As long as the minions allow themselves to be played emotionally by the ‘powers-that-be’, things will continue on their current path.

It’s that simple.