Out of the Blue

[Nov 17, 2012, 2:43 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Sad about Hostess Brands closing, since it seems to be the result of an insoluble labor conflict, and while strikes often result in threats that they will result in the closure of a company, that rarely seems to actually happen as it has in this case. I find it interesting how many people are going all Tallahassee over the pending Twinkie shortage, however, as they are the poster child for crappy junk food, and I don't know anyone who has eaten one in recent memory, much less actually savors them (labor strife aside, I think if everyone saddened by this actually bought Twinkies, Hostess would be fine). In my opinion, Hostess only ever made one really good product, which was their fruit pies, which I have not seen in a store in over a decade if not longer. I assumed they stopped making them, but I see them on eBay at seemingly exorbitant prices, so I'm not sure if that's due to the Hostess closure, or perhaps they are working off old stock, since these babies are half preservatives anyway (I think it's the latter, as the labels all seem to feature Fruit Pie the Magician, and Wikipedia says he was removed from the packaging in 2006).

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18.

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 20:05

xXBatmanXx

s, which I have not seen in a store in over a decade if not longer.

They are all over here in the Midwest. Every single gas station has a pile of em. I grew up on em and still enjoy one every once in a while.

We have a Hostess store. and the shelves were still full yesterday. Hostess is such a big name around here, people are bummed, but don't have the fever that everyone else seems to have.

They will be back soon. I think there will be a hell of a lot of buyers remorse when the stock is depleted and 2 days later they say everything is fine.

I feel bad for those in the Union. They have made MAJOR concessions in the prior years, and the media isn't picking up on that. They are very anti-union. Sad. Very sad.




In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. / Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder. Playing: RL

17.

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 19:25

nin

OK, snagged the last of the orange cupcakes! <drool> Also grabbed two mini apple pies in honor of Blue, but sadly, they are not hostess.




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

16.

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 17:48

nin

Little Debbie exist solely to present Hostess products as gourmet food.

Pretty much that, exactly. Little Debbie is the bottom wrung of the snack ladder.

And as far as union vs management goes, this was a bit of an eye opener: http://gawker.com/5961444/

I'm generally not a fan of unions (at all), but I do feel they have their place. And based on the above, it sounds like management was the issue.




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

15.

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 17:39

^Drag0n^

Another fine example of Labor Unions putting the welfare of their members first....




"Never start a fight, but always finish it."

14.

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 17:22

Wallshadows

Most of the baked foodstuffs I eat are from local bakeries so it's not a great impact on me. They're often fresher, come in a delicious variety, and contain more product with a cheaper tag. Picking up six massive jelly rolls in a package for 3$ is always a nice treat for my sweet tooth. I think it's just strange that a somewhat iconic company that has been around since the 30s is being shut down due to a labor strike.

13.

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 17:22

MajorD

Draugr wrote on Nov 17, 2012, 16:44:
MajorD wrote on Nov 17, 2012, 14:32:
This is a real shame.

I have heard & read more stories of business having to shutdown due to union strikes. So, in the middle of a recession, with unemployment at an all time high, they'll go on strike for more money and better benefits, which the companies simply can not afford as it is, because they are barely sustaining in the current state of the economy, and will eventually lead to the companies having to shutdown their operations. So what have they gained? //Shakes head….

Unions 'might' still have their place in various sectors, but definitely not all anymore. In this day and age they aren't as isolated as they once were, and have definitely become more volatile.

lol.

Enlighten me.




http://www.youtube.com/user/M4jorDICK

12.

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 16:44

Draugr

MajorD wrote on Nov 17, 2012, 14:32: This is a real shame. I have heard & read more stories of business having to shutdown due to union strikes. So, in the middle of a recession, with unemployment at an all time high, they'll go on strike for more money and better benefits, which the companies simply can not afford as it is, because they are barely sustaining in the current state of the economy, and will eventually lead to the companies having to shutdown their operations. So what have they gained? //Shakes head…. Unions 'might' still have their place in various sectors, but definitely not all anymore. In this day and age they aren't as isolated as they once were, and have definitely become more volatile. lol.

11.

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 16:00

MajorD

@Dades: That's not what happened to Hostess anyway, they asked the unions to take a third major concession in 5 years and many of the workers voted against it because they could not afford to take another pay cut. These guys were not auto workers without a high school education making 80k, demanding raises.

Yeah very true, this is a completely different story and set of circumstances, and is unfortunate. I would imagine the corporate heads were using the current unemployment rates to their advantage to create fear/doubt/uncertainty when they asked the unions to take that third major concession you outlined.

There are a lot of markets that have working conditions that practically require unions to avoid corporate abuse but thanks to global trade many companies know they can get chinese workers to do it without that concern.

This is the scary part, as we have enough jobs and manufacturing moving offshore as it is.

@Cutter: When do you ever here about the intransigence and greed of management that's unwilling to bend, take salary or benefit cuts? You know the average CEO now makes 157 times what the average worker makes. 157 times!!! So you should always try to see the other side of the story because almost without fail everyone of these stories almost always tries to lay the blame on working people.

This is a can a worms I didn't open, but you are absolutely right; I see it a lot and hear about it a lot first hand, and it is something that seems to have gotten worse over the years.




http://www.youtube.com/user/M4jorDICK

10.

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 15:21

Sepharo

"90,000 SQUARE FOOT CABLE VAULT HAS SUFFERED A "CATASTROPHIC FAILURE"

Neat article, video, and pictures about Verizon's damaged wiring after Sandy. Looks like lower Manhattan is getting a fiber upgrade.




[I'm not trolling I'm just] tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. -TrollinThundr

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 15:10

Prez

I am vehemently anti-union because of some really ugly personal history with them, but Cutter is right that the union is not the issue in this case. These people have been asked to take cut after cut - how they continue to eek out a living is beyond me. I try to understand both sides of any issue, and taken at face value it is not too hard to believe that the company's side that revenue is way down causing some tough cuts to be made. That said, the employees are not the bad guys for being tired of having to work for less and less while the cost of everything keeps going up.




Prez on Soundclick http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=604888

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 15:05

PHJF

So, in the middle of a recession, with unemployment at an all time high, they'll go on strike for more money and better benefits,

Gee it's so hard to actually google things before opening your craw, isn't it?

Before the Chapter 11 filing in January, citing growing competition from rivals that expanded their reach over the years, the company had been contributing $100 million a year in pension costs. The new contract offer would've slashed that to $25 million a year, in addition to wage cuts and a 17% reduction in health benefits.

Tensions between management and workers were also an ongoing problem.

Hostess came under fire this year after it was revealed that nearly a dozen executives received pay hikes of up to 80% even as the company was struggling last year.

derp derp greedy workers derp derp stupid unions derp derp




Steam + PSN: PHJF

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 15:02

Cutter

MajorD wrote on Nov 17, 2012, 14:32:
This is a real shame.

I have heard & read more stories of business having to shutdown due to union strikes. So, in the middle of a recession, with unemployment at an all time high, they'll go on strike for more money and better benefits, which the companies simply can not afford as it is, because they are barely sustaining in the current state of the economy, and will eventually lead to the companies having to shutdown their operations. So what have they gained? //Shakes head….

Unions 'might' still have their place in various sectors, but definitely not all anymore. In this day and age they aren't as isolated as they once were, and have definitely become more volatile.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Back it up...beep beep beep! No, what you have is big media owned by big business reporting that unions are the problem. When do you ever here about the intransigence and greed of management that's unwilling to bend, take salary or benefit cuts? You know the average CEO now makes 157 times what the average worker makes. 157 times!!! So you should always try to see the other side of the story because almost without fail everyone of these stories almost always tries to lay the blame on working people. Even while profits were falling and they - management - were demanding workers take cuts to pay and benefits, they were giving themselves raises and bonuses. Classic. So things must have been far worse than reported if 20k people feel that being out of work is a better alternative then what was offered.

That being said, I actually don't like unions. I agree most of them are overbloated dinosaurs only interested in collecting dues. I've been forced to work in a few of them over the years and always hated the experience. Then again, I'm a skilled worker so I don't require one. The flipside obviously is that bad management is entirely responsible for creating the need for unions in the first place and there's more than enough of that to go around. So, in many cases unions are still very necessary - if you don't want to starve. That is unless it's an employee owned business - or has a good profit sharing program - which is the ideal for workers.

P.S. And forget Tallahassee, Al from Die Hard was the real Twinkies fan seeing as he could list all the ingredients.




"Are you crazy? Is that your problem?" - Jack Burton

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 15:01

Dades

MajorD wrote on Nov 17, 2012, 14:32: This is a real shame. I have heard & read more stories of business having to shutdown due to union strikes. So, in the middle of a recession, with unemployment at an all time high, they'll go on strike for more money and better benefits, which the companies simply can not afford as it is, because they are barely sustaining in the current state of the economy, and will eventually lead to the companies having to shutdown their operations. So what have they gained? //Shakes head…. Unions 'might' still have their place in various sectors, but definitely not all anymore. In this day and age they aren't as isolated as they once were, and have definitely become more volatile. That's what happens with some unions but many corporations know that public apathy towards unions is at an all time high and use that to their advantage. That's not what happened to Hostess anyway, they asked the unions to take a third major concession in 5 years and many of the workers voted against it because they could not afford to take another pay cut. These guys were not auto workers without a high school education making 80k, demanding raises. There are a lot of markets that have working conditions that practically require unions to avoid corporate abuse but thanks to global trade many companies know they can get chinese workers to do it without that concern. - *DADES* - This is a signature of my name, enjoy!

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 14:59

Ray Marden

Little Debbie exist solely to present Hostess products as gourmet food.

As for Hostess, they were alive and kicking up through today - I saw (limited stock) at Target today and they have been around for my entire life. I will say that mid-Florida seems to barely stock them, offering up shelving space to many other competitors, compared to them being the primary stocking item in California.

Rarely finding Joray-style fruit rolls,
Ray Suck it, Pop-Tarts losers.




Anna. Anna? Anna...is that you? http://www.youtube.com/blacklily8 I love you, mom.

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 14:32

MajorD

This is a real shame.

I have heard & read more stories of business having to shutdown due to union strikes. So, in the middle of a recession, with unemployment at an all time high, they'll go on strike for more money and better benefits, which the companies simply can not afford as it is, because they are barely sustaining in the current state of the economy, and will eventually lead to the companies having to shutdown their operations. So what have they gained? //Shakes head….

Unions 'might' still have their place in various sectors, but definitely not all anymore. In this day and age they aren't as isolated as they once were, and have definitely become more volatile.

This comment was edited on Nov 17, 2012, 14:38.




http://www.youtube.com/user/M4jorDICK

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 14:25

Prez

Drakes cakes are best. I can eat a box of Yankee Doodles in one sitting.




Prez on Soundclick http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=604888

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 14:23

PHJF

Twinkies aren't bad, but come on, everything Little Debbie makes is better than everything Hostess makes (made?). There's absolutely no contest between Swiss Cake Rolls and Ho Hos.

edit: goddammit, now I have to go find SOME sort of pie...Thanks!

You can't wait a week for pumpkin?




Steam + PSN: PHJF

Re: Out of the Blue

Nov 17, 2012, 13:57

nin

Hostess only ever made one really good product, which was their fruit pies, which I have not seen in a store in over a decade if not longer.

Been in stores here all my life. Saw some a week ago when I was at the store.

They used to make an awesome blackberry one, but I've not seen it in several years. Strawberry ones were rare, but delicious.

edit: goddammit, now I have to go find SOME sort of pie...Thanks!

This comment was edited on Nov 17, 2012, 14:04.




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

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