Hostess, maker of Twinkies and Ding Dongs, says closing business

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix

Originally posted by sonnny1
reply to post by Chadwickus

 

That is the truth.

I buy these products, and my children eat them also. Not just the cakes, but also the breads.


This isn't good for the economy.

Screw the economy. Do you have any idea whats in twinkies and wonder bread? It's basically poison you don't want to feed your kids. In a right thinking world, you'd go to jail for child abuse. It's sad these people lost the jobs but now they have an opportunity to stop living J.ust O.ver B.roke and do something Great and meaningful with their lives. A fresh start.

I read it was Not the entire company that is going under, only the baking division. At least now there are 18,000 people that will not be conspiring to kill us all with chemicals. It's a win win for everyone.

Sorry those people thought a union was a good thing to belong to. They made their bed now they get to sleep in it. The economy was not in shape for them to do this. Same with Wal-mart. But here is what you will be missing if they somehow do not continue to make these under a different company name (same owners) or sell the brand to some other company in exchange for shares in that company.

www.divinecaroline.com...

Yummy golgen goodness...


Five ingredients come from rocks. This got my attention. However, it only got worse when I discovered that the ingredients come from phosphate mines in Idaho, gypsum mines in Oklahoma, and oil fields in China. Okay, so now I was wondering if I was watching a real news story—come to find out, I was. The Twinkie, which was created during the Depression, contains thirty-nine ingredients. One of those ingredients is a preservative, sorbic acid. Sorbic acid is an ingredient I see on many packages, and I have never thought twice about it. But author Steve Ettlinger did. He found that sorbic acid is actually derived from natural gas. If that isn’t shocking enough, he goes on to talk about other ingredients like cellulose gum, Polysorbate 60, and calcium sulfate. Apparently, these ingredients are also used in sheet rock, shampoo, and rocket fuel. No wonder Twinkies make kids run around like crazy and have even been used as a defense for murder! Mr Ettlinger also found that the vitamins, artificial colors, and flavorings in Twinkies come from petroleum. I started to wonder how this tasty treat made from gas and rocks can be so light and airy. In comes Mr. Ettlinger again. Apparently, it’s limestone that makes Twinkies light. And that tasty cream center—it’s got to be milk, right? No. It’s made of shortening; there is absolutely no cream in the cream. I have to say I was curious to know what Hostess, the makers of the Twinkie, thought about Mr. Ettlinger’s claims. Well, here’s the quote that ran in my newscast: Deconstructing the Twinkie is like trying to deconstruct the universe. We think the millions of people … would agree that Twinkies just taste great.—David Leavitt, Vice President Snack Marketing at Hostess. The news story was inspired by Steve Ettlinger’s new book, Twinkie Deconstructed. Ettlinger uses the Twinkie to demonstrate where our processed food ingredients come from. Since the Twinkie is the product leader—yes, it’s a product and apparently, barely a food—it served as the perfect tool to show consumers what goes into our food. Another newsworthy note—since so many of the ingredients come from overseas, there are hardly any regulations placed on them. We are all familiar with the recent paint issues from China. As for the Twinkie, many of the vitamins listed on its label come from China and are not regulated. There were a few other ingredients Ettlinger sourced, but he was unable to communicate with the agricultural or chemical manufacturer of those ingredients. They simply do not need to make themselves available. To read more about the Twinkie and Steve Ettlinger, you can buy his book or see his Web site. One last word for all of us who fried a Twinkie at some point in our lives … I guess we didn’t make it any less healthy.




www.classroomtools.com...

These delicious hockey pucks...


Hostess Ding Dong Sugar, partially hydrogenated vegetable and/or animal shortening (may contain one or more of: soybean oil, cottonseed oil, palm oil, beef fat, lard), enriched flour (niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin), water, cocoa, skim milk, corn syrup, eggs, mono- and diglycerides, starch, whey, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate), salt, sodium caseinate, lecithin, cellulose gum, polysorbate 60, artificial color, artificial and natural flavors, sorbic acid




The only thing I might miss is the wonder bread.

I do feel sorry for the kids of these families, they had no choice in the matter and they will be greatly affected by this, but not eating free twinkies and ding dongs is not a terrible thing.

reply to post by randomname


I think so.

Sad that 18000 lost their jobs because of it.

Originally posted by KoolerKing


I have no problem with someone making millions but my point is when a company is in deep trouble it makes no sense for someone to still be making millions.

Then they could never AFFORD the kind of person who would have the brains to get and keep them OUT of financial trouble... What do they have to offer a good exec that has the brains to keep the business afloat? The bakers can't bake if their is no where for them to bake at. They could all open their own bakeries, that is 18 thousand new bakeries, is their a demand for that many new bakeries? Some might succeed, most would not... If there was a guy who cost 2 million a year that could of kept the business going and make a billion dollars a year, would he not too feel cheated to only being paid 2 million when he made the company a billion?

Well, this is quite an interesting story to read more about. Plenty of twists and turns. The Union IS the bad guy..but, which union? One Union here tried to save this company and the other stubbornly stuck their heads in the sand and destroyed it, outright...after being TOLD that was precisely what their action was going to do. I'd say they deserve it but only 6,500 of the 18,500 who lost their jobs were members of this smaller Union that ended that part of the Hostess production. What a mess to look at this.

Hostess warned them:

"We simply do not have the financial resources to survive an ongoing national strike," Rayburn said in a statement Wednesday. "Therefore, if sufficient employees do not return to work by 5 p.m., EST, on Thursday to restore normal operations, we will be forced to immediately move to liquidate the entire company, which will result in the loss of nearly 18,000 jobs."

Then, what surprised me to see, The Teamsters themselves warned them:

The Teamsters said that the BCTGM members had previously voted "without complete information," with over 90 percent rejecting Hostess' contract offer.

The Teamsters warned that Hostess' Wednesday announcement that it would not be able to operate without the striking workers was "not an empty threat or a negotiating tactic, but the certain outcome if members of the BCTGM continue to strike."

"The BCTGM leaders are putting Teamster members in a horrible position – asking them to support a strike that will put them out of a job when they haven't even asked all their members to go on strike," the Teamsters said in a statement.

Source

The damndest thing is, Hostess is in bankruptcy court and the Judge says what happens more than any Hostess CEO does and this whole thing only kicked up on the 9th of this month. It's not like it'd been a long, hard strike with much invested to maintain. Well.... They won their battle and lost the whole war in the process. Merry Christmas and I sure feel for the other workers who never got a vote in the decision that lost their jobs as well. The Teamsters had a real good point about that.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


The union is NOT the bad guy.
The management of the company that forced it into bankruptcy are the bad guys.

What if you were told oops, we mishandled the finances, OK all you employees better cough up your wages
to fix it.
Never mind your current bills are based on your old salary. We the Hostess Co., are gonna need all 18,000
of you to learn to live on less. Can't afford those mortgages now, well too bad.
Put all 18,000 on the market up for sale then, at once, sell your second car if you can't live on what we are willing to pay you now... Yeah, sure, blame the unions for fighting for their people.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Once again some of us miss the truth of the matter. Research how long Hostess has been in decline and how their executives gave themselves bonuses while killing the business and stagnating workers pay.

America just died a little

reply to post by ascension211


O M G ! ! !

Did you know that 100% of what we eat and drink either contain or are made with a VERY SERIOUS Chemical?!?!

REALLY!!!

It's DiHydrogenMonoxide!!!

www.dhmo.org...

terrible, horrible,nasty stuff!!!

Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is a colorless and odorless chemical compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid. Its basis is the highly reactive hydroxyl radical, a species shown to mutate DNA, denature proteins, disrupt cell membranes, and chemically alter critical neurotransmitters. The atomic components of DHMO are found in a number of caustic, explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, Nitroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol.

..... ya'll let him worry for just a little while before you break it to him that every single substance in the universe is a "chemical" ok?

Originally posted by PaperbackWriter
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

The union is NOT the bad guy.
The management of the company that forced it into bankruptcy are the bad guys.

What if you were told oops, we mishandled the finances, OK all you employees better cough up your wages
to fix it.
Never mind your current bills are based on your old salary. We the Hostess Co., are gonna need all 18,000
of you to learn to live on less. Can't afford those mortgages now, well too bad.
Put all 18,000 on the market up for sale then, at once, sell your second car if you can't live on what we are willing to pay you now... Yeah, sure, blame the unions for fighting for their people.

and don't forget, they gave all the exec's a big raise while doing so, doubling most of their salaries....

This isn't the fault of the union, it's the fault of the greedy executives

"Archie, I'm telling you they're not making Twinkies anymore."

Saving to my subscribed threads.

Will comment when I get back.

Originally posted by PaperbackWriter
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

The union is NOT the bad guy.
The management of the company that forced it into bankruptcy are the bad guys.

What if you were told oops, we mishandled the finances, OK all you employees better cough up your wages
to fix it.
Never mind your current bills are based on your old salary. We the Hostess Co., are gonna need all 18,000
of you to learn to live on less. Can't afford those mortgages now, well too bad.
Put all 18,000 on the market up for sale then, at once, sell your second car if you can't live on what we are willing to pay you now... Yeah, sure, blame the unions for fighting for their people.

I'm sorry, but the National Teamsters Union flat out said that wasn't the case and the smaller union representing under half the work force effected had a simple choice. They could come off the strike and save the plant or they could remain out and the loss of the plant and their jobs was a certain outcome of that decision. I cited and linked the direct quotes above. They said that. The Teamsters said it.

That pretty well makes it a cut and dry case. Hostess may well have had management issues and they sure did have unfunded pension issues as both companies and governments alike share across the nation today. However, none of that means squat to 18,500 people who likely won't have work this Christmas when a single decision by a minority of the workforce there would have made it otherwise. I think it's safe to assume some of those workers won't be maintaining friendships after all this to put it lightly.

I'm as shocked as anyone to find myself actually agreeing with and giving a nod of respect to the Teamsters of all the folks.....but in this case, they did the stand up thing and the smaller Union killed the patient to cure the cold.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000

Originally posted by PaperbackWriter
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

The union is NOT the bad guy.
The management of the company that forced it into bankruptcy are the bad guys.

What if you were told oops, we mishandled the finances, OK all you employees better cough up your wages
to fix it.
Never mind your current bills are based on your old salary. We the Hostess Co., are gonna need all 18,000
of you to learn to live on less. Can't afford those mortgages now, well too bad.
Put all 18,000 on the market up for sale then, at once, sell your second car if you can't live on what we are willing to pay you now... Yeah, sure, blame the unions for fighting for their people.

I'm sorry, but the National Teamsters Union flat out said that wasn't the case and the smaller union representing under half the work force effected had a simple choice. They could come off the strike and save the plant or they could remain out and the loss of the plant and their jobs was a certain outcome of that decision. I cited and linked the direct quotes above. They said that. The Teamsters said it.

That pretty well makes it a cut and dry case. Hostess may well have had management issues and they sure did have unfunded pension issues as both companies and governments alike share across the nation today. However, none of that means squat to 18,500 people who likely won't have work this Christmas when a single decision by a minority of the workforce there would have made it otherwise. I think it's safe to assume some of those workers won't be maintaining friendships after all this to put it lightly.

I'm as shocked as anyone to find myself actually agreeing with and giving a nod of respect to the Teamsters of all the folks.....but in this case, they did the stand up thing and the smaller Union killed the patient to cure the cold.

edit on 16-11-2012 by Wrabbit2000 because: (no reason given)

Jimmy Hoffa would of made damn sure that the actions of a few would not of hindered them all.. Jimmy had quite a way with people messing up his deals, if Jimmy Hoffa was still around, this would of been taken care of.

Originally posted by roadgravel
Some other company will fill in any void left by this closing. Watch that door knob, Hostess.

edit on 11/16/2012 by roadgravel because: typo

Yeah now I am sure we will have Chinese twinkies and ding dongs with mystery ingredients even worse then the originals..

Another example of greedy Unions being nothing but company killers. This is the result almost every single time. The stupid sheople will never get it though. ~$heopleNation

With all the Twinkie talk just ad to post this

reply to post by sonnny1



Oh my god the apocalypse is upon us! Its bedlam it will be chaos in the streets when people can't get their Twinkies and Ding Dongs.... Load up the guns and batten down the hatches people the end is upon us! This is serious...

Clearly the decline in profitability falls on the big wigs of hostess, but having said that they gave the workers an option. One meant continuing to work and make money, albiet perhaps not as much as before, and the other was to follow the union and strike. That choice led to 18,000 jobless and Hostess closing down. We can split hairs and point blame all you want here, but at the end of the day if the workers went back to work they most likely would still have a job.

Life is not always fair, sometimes you have to chose between a bucket of poop or poop without a bucket. They chose just the raw poop. Now the bucket is no longer their for them and they are all left to go home and tell their families they have no job, ZERO income because they chose poorly.

Again, spin this how you want but if someone is providing you X ammount of dollars weekly and for whatever reason they tell you I can only give you X - 15% now, or you can leave with nothing. What will you do? Many can not simply quit and find another job right away with the same salery and benefits. For many, the wiser choice would have been accept the terms and keep getting the pay check as they look for something better. Thanks to the union, that choice was not afforded, thanks to the union 18,000 are jobless and Hostess is closing down.

Now I'm not against unions, but good god man, sometimes you have to consider whats good for your people given the proper context, sometimes the union head needs to look past it's own fat wallet and ensure their paying members are not left out in the cold, sometimes the union head needs to take a loss for the good of it's people. Let me ask you this, how many of the 18,000 jobless still think today that the choices they made/followed here were good? How many of the union reps are losing food over this?

It's a horrible situation all around but one that was compounded and in the end fractured by the Union in this case.

RIP Twinkies...

I'd prefer that they would have continued to make it with out all the junk.

Not gonna eat it? FREEZE IT! Leave out the junk!

The original Twinkie snack, conceived in the early 1930s by Charles Dewar of Continental Bakeries, lacked many of today's ingredients. But it also spoiled on the shelf within a week. The contemporary Twinkie, with all those ingredients, does not spoil so fast, while still pleasing lots of palates and doing minimal harm if consumed in moderate amounts.



Read more: The Twinkie decoded - The Denver Post www.denverpost.com...