Henry Payne for November 21, 2012

Well done Sir.

This country NEEDS to preserve the vanishing jobs of the Conservative American CEO. We need more bailouts to continue their 50% annual raises and multi-million dollar bonuses. They are the JOB CREATORS! WE MUST SPEND MIDDLE CLASS TAX MONEY TO SUPPORT THOSE UNDERPRIVILEGED CORPORATE VULTURES!!!

It is sad to lose the jobs. It’s sadder that management didn’t see this coming and wasn’t willing to adapt. Perhaps saddest that so many CEOs opposed true health-care reform that would have taken the responsibility for the health of all Americans, letting businesses concentrate on creating products and competing in a free market with the rest of the world.

^ Ditto.

I wonder how much of Hostess’ problem was a lack of effort in modernizing their product offerings. While Coca-Cola still offers Classic Coke, they also offer dozens of alternatives. Preferences change with time and demographics. Companies must adapt or…… I know, let’s blame it on the unions.

This is the second bankruptcy for Hostess in the last 24 months. The unions took wage cuts once before. This contract the Teamsters approved the latest wage package, but the Bakers union didn’t. They didn’t even send their top guy to the last mediation ordered by the court. The Bakers unions still refused to negotiate. As such Hostess will go into liquidation phase of the Chapter 11 filing. It was rumored that there were buyers that would take over the company and maintain the union contracts. That was the rumor heard in the Bakers group and thought to be the reason they were so determined not to accept the latest company offer. So far that hasn’t come about and 18,500 are out of work.The who said what and all the blaming and finger pointing can go on but the one fact remains: 18,500 people are out on the street in a weak economy with skills that are not in great demand .

They went into bankruptcy in 2004-2009. The company moved its headquarters to Irving, Texas (NOT coincidentally), and gee, a large part of the capital is controlled by GE Capital!

“Poor little Hostess”, isn’t actually “poor”, or “little”. This current bankruptcy is just another in the companies (yes, they bought up many other brands along the way) now operating as “Hostess”, long history of fighting unions.

good riddance to that junk food