Dare we hope that a new non union-burdened company will be able to produce the fruit pies of old?
Forget Twinkies. I want my hand held fruit pies.

Too bad, guys. Maybe your union bosses will invite your families to Thanksgiving dinner.

Don´t wait by the phone.

Groupo Bimbo, the Mexican bakery giant is the most likely buyer, they already own a lot of the American bakery industry.

Unions are a blight on the world. Like locusts or the Black Death.

#3: I doubt anyone but a foreign company could buy it and not be blocked from producing in some way. Obama doesn´t like his precious unions to lose -- his administration has already declared itself all about revenge. If Mexicans buy it, there´s a chance they´ll be up and running in no time. The question is, will they produce anything in the US so some Americans can have those jobs?

Unions, in their current incarnation, are evil. Will we ever be shed of them?

Apparently no one budged one inch on their offers. Otherwise a mediator would have kept the meetings going for at least another day.

Good. Don´t fool around and prolong agony.

The mediator´s report, if any, could be interesting.

I hope the judge also acts promptly.

Did the union even show up for the talks?

Please don´t flame me--I´m looking for good arguments for the inevitable Thanksgiving arguments!--what is the answer to the complaint that rather than re-invest the union concessions back into the company, that money went out the door to investors and management pay and perks?

I would be fine if the unions disappeared tomorrow, but I am beginning at least understand where the other side is coming from and want to have a solid response.

All Hostess people should be allowed to vote on the company´s offer,not just the union thugs who are puppeted by Trumka.For all we know the entrenched idiots that will cost these people jobs are on the union payroll and their checks will keep rolling in.

There´s an old saying about never quitting a job unless you have a new one to go to.Apparently these people never heard of that.

Jobs have become academic in Obamaworld.

"I am beginning at least understand where the other side is coming from and want to have a solid response."

You´re looking in the wrong place.

To answer the above question: Hostess has been on life support for years. Outside, mostly hedge fund, money ($100 millions) has been poured into the fracas and essentially wasted. So the argument that the company was bled dry by predatory investors doesn´t hold up.

My guess is that the union wanted to preserve its perks, etc. in face of a changing industry where uber-junk food such as Twinkies has lost market share. The Teamsters saw the handwriting on the wall and compromised - but not the bakers´ union.

#8, it´s a good question. I wondered the same thing. I did a little research and found this article from July of this year: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/tag/gregory-rayburn/

It´s very interesting, doesn´t take sides, and explains the background of how Hostess got mired in 1B (yes, 1Billion) in debt. You´ll be the best-informed person at the table. =)

Sorry for the double post, but the article I mentioned above will also tell you all you want to know about Hostess´ ties to the Democrat party and Dick Gebhart´s consulting firms place in all this...

Twinkies hadn´t tasted the same for years like how they tasted originally. Many of these former employees will now spend the rest of their lives living on foodstamps and charity. Their union bosses won´t. Some will begin the process to get on disability to bridge them over to Social Security.

C´mon, now. Someone buy them out, already. I got da Snowball Jones.

I was planning on placing their Cherry and Apple pies on every guests plates for Thanksgiving! I can´t make a pie as good as those. Dang unions...

Aren´t unions the greatest!!!

Did anyone watch ´The Five´ on FOX, this week? Greg Gutfeldt liquidated four twinkies and some milk in a blender and passed around the twinkie shake. The three others took a sip and pronounced it delish. Bob Beckel grabbed the glass and chugged it. Within minutes he had to make an emergency run from the set, experiencing serious, emergency, twinkie shake overload. Too funny!

H-m-m-m, bet this would be good with a shot of brandy.

#8 - the answer in general is that business owners ultimately need a return on investment! That´s why they created or bought the company in the first place, otherwise it´s just a hobby, not a business.
The business owns all the assets and the jobs belong to the business NOT the individual or the union. Who cares what compensation the employees ´used´ to receive! Today´s reality dictates what wages they can afford to pay and I´m sure they´d have no problem finding people that want those opportunities. At some point a business needs to cut losses and do what they can to salvage some return on investment. Only an idiot would keep paying unsustainable salaries until nothing was left of their investment. And, ironically, these owners are all big liberals, believe it or not

Little Debbie makes Golden Cremes (?) and fruit pies that I think compete very well with the Hostess versions. They are made in Gravette (pronounced gravit, a as in hat) Arkansas. Pretty sure non-union. A plus is that we can shop at the outlet store there. Good and cheap.

Union leaders who drove the Hostess employees into joblessness, are in panic mode, as they are beginning to realize that thuggery and threats have ceased to work.
.... I wonder how long it will take before unionized workers turn againdy ´the bosses´ ... those who have securely lined their own pockets with employee cash and are NOT worried about their own personal future.

Here you go #8...read here:

http://www.foxbusiness.com/investing/2012/11/19/death-twinkies-union-contract-hit/

Obviously the unions don´t learn from example....

Unions are the death of a private company. Their union bosses (who vacation in the Bahamas and fly in to DC to visit the White House) don´t care about the rank and file.

The protest at Walmart and Target regarding working on Black Friday´s pre/Christmas sales is just another attempt to intimidate the companies. The union bosses want the unions in these two stores especially for the "union dues" -- not for the workers....

They could learn a few tricks from revrump jessie jackson sr. -- who manipulated/intimidated Budweiser to hire his children with high paying jobs to do "nothing" -- and he manipulated/intimidated the demorats in Chicago to give the job of representative to his son, jessie jackson jr. (who´s going to jail for fraud)....

Duhhhhhhh!!

LZK

#That old saying is a prime example of the First Law of Wingwalking.

#24 should have referenced #9. Sorry.

I´m with #1. I want the pies. I´ve been known to ride a bike 10 miles just so I could eat one of them - I always called them "chemical pies" - not a natural ingredient in them, not a thing that is good for you, and absolutely delicious in the crudest, most lowbrow, wonderful way. I know the 10 miles of the bike ride didn´t make up for all of that but it at least offset the calories, and I know from eating them that I would have died regretting NOT eating them more than regretting the calories and other detriments from eating them.

So take that, Ms. Obama!

There is nothing mysterious or sinister or particularly unusual about the demise of Hostess. This has all happened before. Nothing has changed, and nothing about this will ever change. Everything you need to know:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfL7STmWZ1c

The very concept of a union is fatally flawed...pay everyone the same regardless of level of effort or skill. Superior workers are underpaid and in fact restricted in their efforts by union rules (threatened even to slow it down). And lazy, inferior workers are overpaid and protected from termination. Unions create built-in waste and inefficiency, and over time they become parasites that consume their host...in this case, their Hostess.

It´s beyond belief that unions will celebrate the closing of an industry because they will not cave into their "demands" for higher pay and benefits. Just what do they gain by doing so? A feel good felling that they were able to take down a company? At what cost? So that thousands will be out of a job with not much hope that another one will appear? The mind set of unions is simply beyond my comprehension. But, rest assured, the union bosses will not be thrown out on the street. They receive their high paying salaries from the union treasury that is supplied by workers dues. Isn´t that just peachy!

No problem, President Obamaphone will give the 18,000 unemployment benefits for a couple of years then followed by permanent disability so they do not foul up the Department of Labor statistics before Billary´s election. Probably some will find work as Social Workers, Community Organizers or Soup line servers.

#3 I heard this am on the radio that Bimbo is a great bakery. They have thier own version of Twinkies. Serves the Unions right but only the workers will be hurt. None of the bosses lost thier jobs.

#29, bought a little blue corvair in 1967, loved that car. Moving foreward to 2012, no more pink snowballs, life is just getting too boring. ps I hate democrats.

If I had the cash I´d buy it, and here is the recovery plan.

1. Move the entire operations to Texas, favorable city is whoever gives us the best deal.

2. Unions are GONE, no one that now works there and wants a union would be welcome, but anyone that wants a job can come to work with us.

3. Start an Employee Stock Ownership plan so all that work there are owners not union scum.

4. Invite investors to participate, I´d have to be very selective...no Libs welcome, period!

5. Build a new plant, move all equipment there, no union movers welcome.

6. Sell to all comers except for businesses in states that are Lib run. No Twinkies for you!

7. Count the profits with both hands and my feet!

Anyone Interested?

I don´t care, just don´t mess with Little Debbie products or I´ll raise bloody hell. Particularly fond of their blueberry muffins.

I always knew that Twinky was a bimbo.

If the Mexican Bimbos purchase the Hostess brands and decide to produce items in the USA, there is nothing to say that they have to hire American workers, as there are millions of illegal alien Mexicans here with Obama work permits who would be pleased as punch to get a job at a non-union bakery in this country. Of course that is besides all the Mexican bakery management people that they could bring in to run the shop.

Unions can ad value particularly in the skilled trades. But the secret is that they cannot be hide-bound to the past. Some of the unions have figured this out (Pipe Fitters and Boiler Makers come to mind) but many are still operating li,e it is 1955. Also, we need to eliminate payroll with-holding for taxes and union dues. When the recipient writes the check, they are much more diligent in evaluating the quality of the product or service.

So, the unions just managed to "outsource" 18,500 jobs....

Oh, the irony.

Every company staffed by union goofs need to keep enough cash on hand to pull up stakes & move to a right-to-work State when it gets to the point of choosing between going out of business or giving into union demands.