News

Union can't kill the Twinkie, but managed to kill its own jobs

It's good news for almost everyone. Twinkies, Fruit Pies and all the other Hostess products we love are back, as is the Hostess brand name under the new ownership of Apollo Global Managment, which bought the brand and the rights to manufacture and market the products out of bankruptcy. So if your life just hadn't been the same since a delusional union forced the company into liquidation, Twinkie the Kid and Fruit Pie the Magician are coming to the rescue.

Rob is thrilled.

There is one party for which it's bad news, of course, and that is the union whose members once made up Hostess's 18,000-member workforce. That workforce will never again be what it was, as the new company will operate with only 4,000 employees who are not unionized. It's hard to feel any sympathy for the union leaders, though, because they did it to themselves. The old company management told the union leaders flat out that their demands could not be met, and unless the union backed down the company would have no choice but to proceed with bankruptcy.

The union refused, so company management did the only thing it could do. Bankruptcy means all contracts are thrown out, and everything is out the window. Before a company can emerge from bankruptcy, it has to submit a plausible restructuring plan to the bankruptcy court, so by the time Apollo bought the company out of bankruptcy, the old structure with the unionized workforce was a thing of the past. No one was going to buy this company unless it was dramatically restructured so that it could make money.

Not only will the workforce be smaller, the Twinkies will be smaller too. Not so much that you wouldn't buy them if you are a Twinkie lover, but it's one more example of what people have to do when they're trying to make a profit.

Union leaders are denouncing Apollo's decision not to rehire the union workers. They should be denouncing themselves. If they hadn't been so stubborn and delusional, maybe the old Hostess would have survived.

Listen

news

weather

traffic

mobile apps

Everything you love about wsbradio.com and more! Tap on any of the buttons below to download our app.

amazon alexa

Enable our Skill today to listen live at home on your Alexa Devices!