By snoadmin
It is a sad day when great things come to an end. As is the case with Hostess Brands Inc., the company must shut its doors and cease production of its tasty teeth-decaying treats.
Hostess had been in and out of bankruptcy for some time now, the nail in the coffin being when thousands of members of the bankers union went on strike to protest wage, pension and health care cuts this month.
Now, more than 18,500 employees will be losing their jobs as Hostess and the Twinkie sail off into the sunset.
Because the company has been in and out of bankruptcy since 2004, the end to Hostess could not have been more clear. Hostess did not receive a bailout from the government, unlike banks and auto industries have in the past.
Maybe the government felt our supply of Twinkies would last us for years. Heck, they don’t rot.
However, all is not lost for Hostess enthusiasts.
Hostess will have a fire sell of its variety of brands for other interested companies to purchase.
There are talks that the company behind hipster beer favorite Pabst Blue Ribbon may be in the front-running to purchase many of Hostess’s popular treats.
Can you imagine a world where with every six-pack of PBR you also get a free Twinkie or Ding Dong?
But jokes aside, something is wrong when a company dissolves due to a union’s fight to keep the employees’ jobs of that said company the same.
Hostess’s lack of funds lead to a need to cut employee salary.
A lot of these funds were probably drained by the Hostess CEO and other executives receiving massive pay raises. The CEO took a 300 percent pay raise of his own.
However, in fighting to keep their salaries and benefits the same, the union ultimately lead its employees to losing their jobs altogether. In the long run, no one wins.
Unions are important to keep big businesses in check, but union members should keep in mind that going on strike may mean their job will be at risk. Especially when there is no money to go around.
We may now live in a world where our children will not know the taste of a Twinkie, Snowball or Wonderbread sandwich.
What a shame.
Ding dong, the Ding Dong is dead.
