There is No Reason to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse if There are No Twinkies

Where will we be without the ever present Twinkies  There will be no reason on the zombie hordes that are destined to come for us in one form or another without the reward of the golden caked, creamed filled goodness at the end of a long day of kicking ass and taking no names. Alas, twilight must descend on all of us (and things) at one time or another. The fall of Rome comes to mind… no, not really. But it does spell the end of an era that has lasted for close to a century as Hostess Brands plan to close their doors saying that they do not have the resources to weather an on going strike with their bakers and union.


Hostess was acquired in 1995 by their now parent company Interstate Bakeries after emerging from 4 years of bankruptcy but only to end up back in Chapter 11 (filed earlier this year) after the company reportedly lost over $300 million dollars last year. The hopes were that the company could reorganize their finances, principally cutting down their labor costs. Those plans, however, were hamstrung with a labor dispute with the BCTGM (Bakery, Confectionery  Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers) Union as they called for a work stoppage hereby effecting two thirds of Hostess’s factories across the nation.

Hostess drew a line in the sand and publicly (and privately, I am sure) stated that if the strike was not solved by Thursday (November 15th) that Hostess would seek from bankruptcy court a motion to liquidate all assets and in fact would mean the loss of 18,500 jobs. BCTGM called the concessions demanded in the new contract offer “outrageous”. Bakers’ Union President, Frank Hurt, said on Tuesday that their members where on strike because they have had enough and where not willing to take the draconian wage and benefit cuts that were on top of the concessions they made back in 2004 giving up their pensions so that Wall Street vultures and capitalists in control of the company could walk away with millions. All of this stems as the Teamsters Union narrowly took the deal of reduced wages and benefits while the bakers firmly rejected it. BCTGM Union representatives also claim that Hostess was already planning the closure of bakeries in the Seattle, St. Louis, and Cincinnati areas cutting 627 jobs. In fact Hostess sought to throw out it’s collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters in court although the union fought back and won ensuring that Hostess could not unilaterally make changes to working conditions, allowing Teamster Hostess members to decide their own fate through voting. (53% of the Teamster Hostess members voted to approve the final offer) The new contract that is in dispute cuts salaries across the company by 8% in the first three years of the five year agreement but then get bumped back up 3% in the next three years ending with an additional 1% increase the final year. However, it also includes reduced pension and health and benefit obligations.

Twinkies debuted in 1930 during the American Great Depression as a cheap tasty treat and in their 82 years has survived countless diets, recessions, increase competition, and other labor disputes as well as other bankruptcies. But does all this mean the ACTUAL end of the iconic cake along with Wonder Bread, Ho Ho’s and the like? Probably not. The truth is that most of, if not all will be purchased by other companies but it does spell problems with the union as they will more than likely not wan to honor anything -contract wise- that Hostess offered their members and in the end will in no doubt all contracts to be seen re-negotiated if they even use those bakeries at all.

Hopefully. I for one love the taste of Hostess cakes. And while there are a plethora of rip-offs and copycats the just do not seem to add up to my standards of what Twinkies and Ho Hoes taste like.

Cited Sources:

Teamsters Union
New York Times
Seattle Times
Seattle pi
NBC Broadcasting