Ho

[glowplug]

Ho Ho and Twinkies say goodbye. Millions of potheads seek alternative munchies. Appears the Dem voting, card carrying union thugs have shot themselves in the foot. No matter, they'll just all apply for social security disability and be added to the Govt.IndustrialWelfareComplex..........


Hostess going out of business; nearly 18,000 to be laid off

Updated: Nov 16, 2012
By: Alice Wolke

IRVING, Texas - Say goodbye to your Twinkies.


North Texas-based Hostess Brands, Inc. has decided to go out of business and liquidate its assets after failing to win back striking workers.

The company posted a statement on a website set up specifically for people following the strike.

"We deeply regret the necessity of today's decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike," said Gregory F. Rayburn, chief executive officer. "Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders."

About one-third of the company's workers are union members who are unhappy about the company's cutbacks during its bankruptcy reorganization.

But problems with several unions -- including the Bakery, Confectionery, and Tobacco workers and the Grain Millers International Union -- have prevented the company from moving forward.
Hostess said it will seek bankruptcy court permission to sell all of its assets. The company said bakery production has already shut down.

Some of the brands' products include Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho-Hos, Fruit Pies and Wonder Bread.

[linsal]

I did some poking around, and surprise!...the unions could not be reached for comment.

[glowplug]

Golly gee, I thought someone on AW would take the wide open opportunity to make the case for a govt. bailout of Hostess?

We have a couple foaming at the mouth liberals here who see the govt as the solution 100% of the time.

"osama died"
"GM lives"
"Solyndra is dead."
"4 citizens dead in Libya".
"over 4,000 dead in obamaNam because of obummer,"
"Wonderbread is dead"
"Hostess twinkies and ho hos are on their death bed. "

Waiting for Tallweeds, BarryJoseph, Bins, to ask their oba-messiah to bail out Twinkies and Ho Hos. moochie secretly wants a Ho Ho to grow that fat azz of hers even bigger. "We need a govt. bailout here, wanna, wanna."

[mfsman]

I apologize as thought thread may have been about the females that unzipped Petraeus zipper. This evening I attended a program as a recap of what we did in September to honor 400+ WWII vets. The MC of the program Sentimental Journey was introducing various individuals responsible for the program. He first honored one of the vets to say something. After he made his comments David said "he did not relate the story he told me at lunch yesterday". It was especially apropos as this is a Navy vet. I had talked to him prior to program and served on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. He said this young woman is standing in front of him attempting to get on a bus but skirt too tight. She reached back and pulled down the zipper of her dress and could still not get her leg high enough. She did it again and still did not work. She did the third time and someone behind lifted her to the step. She said why are you doing that and said you keep lowering my fly. He said I am too old to get mine up and you cannot get yours down. I had people tell me initially that Petraeus was set up. My son is leaving the Corp for a different modus operandi at present. We are truly on a slippery slope. Petraeus tried to play the game.

[glowplug]

Hostess Brands Inc. and its second largest union will go into mediation to try and resolve their differences, meaning the Irving, Texas-based company won’t go out of business just yet. The news came Monday after Hostess moved to liquidate and sell off its assets in bankruptcy court citing a crippling strike last week.

The bankruptcy judge hearing the case says that the parties haven’t gone through the critical step of mediation and asked the lawyer for the bakery’s union to ask his client, who wasn’t present, if he would agree to participate.
The judge noted the bakers union’s behavior in calling for mediation. Many have wondered why the union was mostly quiet while the Teamsters accepted Hostess’ last deal, later leaving Teamsters in the lurch when bakers rejected it:

The judge noted that the bakery union went on strike after rejecting the company’s latest contract offer, even though it never filed an objection to it.

“Many people, myself included, have serious questions as to the logic behind this strike,” said Judge Robert Drain, who heard the case in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York in White Plains, N.Y. “Not to have gone through that step leaves a huge question mark in this case.”

[glowplug]

We will now see if the union is serious about their card carrying members having jobs.

[glowplug]

Well, the union is not serious about it's members having jobs.......

http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2012/...tion-next?lite

[glowplug]

The private equity firm which purchased and tried to fix Hostess, Ripplewood Holdings, is closely aligned with the Democratic Party and labor unions:

...the story of Hostess and private equity - at least over the last couple of years - is hardly the cliché that Bained portrays. No tears need to be shed for Ripplewood and its investors, but they weren't part of a get-rich-quick scheme either.

Ripplewood, which was founded by Timothy C. Collins, a major Democratic donor, is expected to lose most, if not all, of the $130 million or so it invested in Hostess. The company's lenders, led by Silver Point Capital and Monarch Alternative Capital, are not expected to fare well either.

The behind-the-scenes tale of Hostess and Ripplewood may be the opposite of a project to buy it, strip it and flip it. When Mr. Collins originally looked at Hostess, he was trying to make investments in troubled companies with union workers. He was convinced that he could work with labor organizations to turn around iconic American businesses, and he hoped Hostess would become a model for similar deals.

Early on, Mr. Collins sought out Richard A. Gephardt, the former House majority leader, who had become a consultant on labor issues, to help Ripplewood acquire Hostess and work with its unions. Mr. Collins had previously been a donor to Mr. Gephardt's election campaigns

While the unions and their media allies like to cite executive salaries and consulting fees paid to executives as outrageous, they are ignoring left winger Dick Gephardt cashing in for himself, and more outrageously, for his son, who was appointed to the Hostess Board and paid one hundred thousand dollars a year.

Hostess has failed to reach agreement with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, which, unlike the Teamsters Union, is unwilling to agree to givebacks in order to keep the company alive, triggering its liquidation and the loss of over 18,000 jobs. The Teamsters, notably, are not affiliated with the AFL-CIO , while the Bakers are part of the labor federation headed by Richard Trumka.

Trumka has a long and sordid history of selling out union workers for his personal political power and career advancement. Clarice Feldman described for our readers his sell-out of the mine workers when he headed the United Mine Workers of America, allying with President Obama, who has made clear his intent to close down coal mines and destroy mining jobs, sacrificing his members' livelihood, while his political sway earned him a promotion from his own union to head up the entire AFL-CIO and emerge as one of Obama's key allies.

[glowplug]

ISMAILIA, Egypt -- Worried about the fate of those moist yellow sponge cakes with a creamy white center? Look no further. Twinkies still reign supreme in the land of pharaohs.

On Friday, the iconic manufacturer of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread closed 33 factories and announced plans to lay off 18,500 workers over an acrimonious labor dispute. Hostess was headed to U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York on Wednesday, seeking permission to liquidate its business.

But in Egypt – and most other Arab countries – Twinkies are popular treats that sell themselves.

Twinkies and Ho Hos are so popular that the local producer, Edita, no longer bothers to advertise and the treats still bring in a sweet 47 percent of the company's profit. Edita markets to the Arab Gulf, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon and is expanding to other countries.

"It is our top seller. Everybody buys it!" said Mohamed Sarwat, who works at the Mecca Market in Ismailia, Egypt, where Twinkies have pride of place behind the counter.


Twinkies are considered better than most of the locally produced packaged cakes and have the cachet of being a real American product made with high-quality imported ingredients. They taste like the real deal, if a little less spongy than their U.S. counterparts. That can't be said for fudgy tasting Boreos, a not-quite-ready-for-prime-time Egyptian knock-off of Oreos.

Twinkies are a favorite of school children in Egypt. The cushiony confections sell for an affordable 7 cents in school cafeterias and for 14 cents in stores. Imported snacks of a similar kind can run up to five times as much.

The local producer of Twinkies is suffering none of the ills faced by Hostess in the U.S. and its production is continuing as planned, a source close to Edita told NBC News. Since the ingredients for Twinkies are imported from outside the U.S. and are produced locally, Egyptian addicts should be able to look forward to that little foil-wrapped piece of comfort well into the future.

[drdiederich]

The Wall St Journal reported today that Flowers will likely bid on (and win) many of the brand assets of Hostess. They would transfer much of the production to their facilities and any facilities they do purchase would not rehire current workforce. They want to avoid taking up other companies labor contracts. They have extra capacity to make many of the Hostess brand products and desire the national brand recognition that comes with the Hostess brands.