Hostess to liquidate if bakers’ strike continues through Thursday

The Bakers Union represent 5,000 of Hostess’ 18,000 employees. They are upset because:

The new contract cuts salaries across the company by 8% in the first year of the five-year agreement. Salaries then bump up 3% in the next three years and 1% in the final year.

Hostess has also reduced its pension obligations and its contribution to the employees’ health care plan. In exchange, the company offered concessions including a 25% equity stake for workers and the inclusion of two union representatives on an eight-member board of directors.

So, the union is upset about an 8% pay cut, and to protest, they are going to enforce a 100% pay cut… not only for themselves, but everyone else. If the union goes through with their extortion and kills Hostess, one can only hope that a class action lawsuit by the *other* employees for lost wages can be brought.

Importantly: the Hostess brand names – Wonder Bread, Twinkies, Ho-Hos, Zingers, Ding-Dongs, etc. – will probably get snapped up at auction. There will presumably be a substantial delay as Twinkie production is shifted from the current Hostess factories to other, presumably non-union and not unlikely non-American, factories elsewhere. Expect changes in recipes and whatnot.