Thanks, Unions: Hostess Going Out of Business

Between unions and ObamaCare, there won’t be many businesses left.

Hostess, the makers of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread, is going out of business after striking workers failed to heed a Thursday deadline to return to work, the company said.

“We deeply regret the necessity of today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike,” Hostess CEO Gregory F. Rayburn said in announcing that the firm had filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to shutter its business. “Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.”

Hostess Brands Inc. had warned employees that it would file to unwind its business and sell off assets if plant operations didn’t return to normal levels by 5 p.m. Thursday. In announcing its decision, Hostess said its wind down would mean the closure of 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, approximately 5,500 delivery routes and 570 bakery outlet stores in the United States.

The Irving, Texas-based company had already reached a contract agreement with its largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. But thousands of members in its second-biggest union went on strike late last week after rejecting in September a contract offer that cut wages and benefits. Officials for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union say the company stopped contributing to workers’ pensions last year.

In an interview with Fox Business, CEO Gregory Rayburn said many workers had already crossed picket lines this week to go back to work despite warnings by union leadership that they’d be fined.

“The problem is we don’t have enough crossing those lines to maintain normal production,” said Rayburn, who first joined Hostess earlier this year as a restructuring expert.

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

The privately held company filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, its second trip through bankruptcy court in less than a decade. The company cited increasing pension and medical costs for employees as one of the drivers behind its latest filing. Hostess had argued that workers must make concessions for it to exit bankruptcy and improve its financial position.

You just know that Richard Trumka, the head union pig, was going to blame all of this on Romney:

“What’s happening with Hostess Brands is a microcosm of what’s wrong with America, as Bain-style Wall Street vultures make themselves rich by making America poor,” Trumka said in a public statement. “Crony capitalism and consistently poor management drove Hostess into the ground, but its workers are paying the price.”

The unions have only themselves to blame. They forced their way into the workplace, extorting dues and using the money for political contributions. Moreover, they’ve jacked up the wages of workers to outrageous levels, thus pricing many of them out of jobs and companies out of business.

Hostess was already in bankruptcy, and it was trying to negotiate a way to stay in business:

The concessions, which affect both the bakery union and Teamsters, call for cuts in wages and benefits of 27 percent to 32 percent over the five-year contract, with an immediate wage cut of 8 percent, the bakery union said. The company stopped contributing to workers’ pensions last year.

The bakery union represents about 5,680 Hostess workers, about 30 percent of Hostess’ total work force.

Well, unions being the scumbags they are, said “no”. Now, you’ve got nothing. No wages. No job. Nothing.

Congratulations to the newly unemployed. You got what you voted for. You’re now part of the Obama Food Stamp Nation.

By the way, the top leaders of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers union get some pretty hefty salaries:

Name	Title	Total Compensation
FRANK HURT	PRESIDENT	$262,654.00
DAVID DURKEE	SECRETARY-TREASURER	$244,396.00
JOSEPH THIBODEAU	EXEC VICE PRESIDENT	$218,989.00
STEVE BERTELLI	VICE PRESIDENT	$198,062.00
MICHAEL KONESKO	VICE PRESIDENT	$184,297.00
ARTHUR MONTMINY	VICE PRESIDENT	$175,505.00
ANTHONY JOHNSON	VICE PRESIDENT	$167,433.00
ROBERT OAKLEY	VICE PRESIDENT	$167,265.00
RANDY ROARK	VICE PRESIDENT	$166,849.00
SEAN KELLY	VICE PRESIDENT	$161,789.00