Seattle Hostess bakery closing following strike
Hostess Brands Inc. is permanently closing three bakeries following a nationwide strike by its bakers union.
The maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread said Monday that the strike has prevented it from producing and delivering products, and it is closing bakeries in Seattle, St. Louis and Cincinnati. The facilities employ 627 workers overall. The Seattle facility employs 110 people and produces Hostess cake products
Hostess, based in Irving, Texas, operates 36 bakeries nationwide and has about 18,300 employees. It warned earlier this month that the strike, by about 30 percent of its workforce, could lead to bakery closures.
"We deeply regret this decision, but we have repeatedly explained that we will close facilities that are no longer able to produce and deliver products because of a work stoppage - and that we will close the entire company if widespread strikes cripple our business," Hostess Brands CEO Gregory F. Rayburn said.
Hostess said customers will not be affected by the closures.
A representative for the union could not be reached immediately for comment Monday.
Thousands of members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike Nov. 9 to protest cuts to wages and benefits under a new contract offer, which the union rejected in September. Union officials say the company stopped contributing to workers' pensions last year.
Hostess has argued that workers must make concessions as it tries to improve its financial position. The privately-held food maker filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, its second trip through bankruptcy court in less than a decade. Hostess cited increasing pension and medical costs for employees as one of the drivers behind its latest filing.
The company, founded in 1930, is fighting battles beyond labor costs, however. Competition is increasing in the snack space and Americans are increasingly conscious about healthy eating.
The maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread said Monday that the strike has prevented it from producing and delivering products, and it is closing bakeries in Seattle, St. Louis and Cincinnati. The facilities employ 627 workers overall. The Seattle facility employs 110 people and produces Hostess cake products
Hostess, based in Irving, Texas, operates 36 bakeries nationwide and has about 18,300 employees. It warned earlier this month that the strike, by about 30 percent of its workforce, could lead to bakery closures.
"We deeply regret this decision, but we have repeatedly explained that we will close facilities that are no longer able to produce and deliver products because of a work stoppage - and that we will close the entire company if widespread strikes cripple our business," Hostess Brands CEO Gregory F. Rayburn said.
Hostess said customers will not be affected by the closures.
A representative for the union could not be reached immediately for comment Monday.
Thousands of members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike Nov. 9 to protest cuts to wages and benefits under a new contract offer, which the union rejected in September. Union officials say the company stopped contributing to workers' pensions last year.
Hostess has argued that workers must make concessions as it tries to improve its financial position. The privately-held food maker filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, its second trip through bankruptcy court in less than a decade. Hostess cited increasing pension and medical costs for employees as one of the drivers behind its latest filing.
The company, founded in 1930, is fighting battles beyond labor costs, however. Competition is increasing in the snack space and Americans are increasingly conscious about healthy eating.
Well, this just leaves opportunity for a start up. Come on people now, who wants this business? Come up with a delicious alternative that is like a twinkie, but not in violation of any patents or copyrights. I think I'm gonna get busy in my kitchen...
these union fools greedy stupid can't see past their noses!! The worst is they will sit around and suck unemployment and blame everyone but themselves. They are the perfect examples of unions destroying this country. Â
Unions are a business also and the way it works is the more the employee makes the more union management makes. looks like the unions just might put themselves out of business also in this great depression of 2008-20xx.
It worries me greatly, this general distrust and dislike of Corporations. Â Understandably, there is very strong evidence of corporate greed run amok, but as a small business CEO, I can assure you not all businesses are that way. Â I know many small business owners who sacrifice way more than they get in return, and often so their employees can have good pay and benefits.
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I think one of the things people forget about with small business is the risk incurred by the owners. Â If you don't like the way you are being treated, start your own company and try employing folks. Â You, too, just might be able to declare bankruptcy one day.
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Businesses provide jobs and income to workers. Â Unless you want to go back to hand-to-mouth survival, I would suggest we need both good businesses and good working conditions.
Way to go Union!
 I think the writing is on the wall for unions.
Did anyone see this? And the Union wanted them to strike?
"Â The privately-held food maker filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, its second trip through bankruptcy court in less than a decade. Hostess cited increasing pension and medical costs for employees as one of the drivers behind its latest filing."
What Union tells their people to strike when a company is in Chapter 11 protection? You think the Company is doing fine? You show no teamwork in helping your company or fellow workers from loosing the jobs they had. Wake up, Unions are outdated. Look at Boeing and the money lost by the employees over these strikes. Look what Boeing gets in return, a product that has problems? Is the employee taking responsibility?Â
Sorry for the job losses, no matter the time of the year. The ugly union rears its head again. There was a time unions were very helpful for families but, in my opinion, that is no longer true. I am pretty much anti-union but do have some very close family members who are union members.......so I'm always open minded. If not for the unions, Obama likely would not have been re-elected and that could be good or bad.
Sorry about the job losses but the health index of the country just shot up a few points.
Right, wrong, or indifferent these private businesses have the right to close all or any part of their business. It's sad to see these jobs lost, but they don't have to be held hostage to employees for any reason and I guess that's the point they just made very loud and clear.
Let me get thie straight, we just made pot legal and they're closing the twinkie factories? What will the stoners do? Oh, the humanity!!
 @downtown Time to buy stock in Doritos!
It amazes me just how little non-union people know of the role a union and collective bargaining. Unions are perceived as money grubbing entities, that couldn't be further from the truth the primary objective is the health and welfare of the union workforce. An example: insulating new construction. When it was discovered that asbestos insulation contained dangerous carcinogens it wasn't corporate leaders that called for the moratorium on its use, it was the unions. When it was determined methane gas would build up and was a leading factor in coal mining disasters it wasn't the corporate leadership that was demanding that a solution be found it was the union. Wherever their is a corporation that uses unsafe materials, or is eliminating healthcare & other takeaways, such as cutting wages to boost the bottom line, hopefully there is a union to step in and advocate for the workforce.
 @left-center whahhhhh what union teat are you on?
There are a few good reasons for unions, but for the most part, they have outlived their usefulness.
@left-center -- "the primary objective is the health and welfare of the union workforce?" Well, how's that working out for those 110 people now? Let's see . . . a cut in pay? Or no job? What's wrong with people?
 @wheresthecommonsense In the late 1970's Nord Door had a successful business with a union workforce. The company leaders were at or over retirement age so they bequeathed the company to their children who immediately put the Company up for sale. The company that purchased Nord Door, Jeld-Wen had a successful door manufacturing business but had a non-union workforce. During the factory renovation Jeld-Wen told the union workforce that there was a job for the individual worker as long as they would leave the union and accept Jeld-Wen's offer of wage and benefits cut, almost half of what the Nord Door workers were getting while at Nord. Very few accepted the Jeld-Wen offer and were locked out before the renovation was complete. The locked out workers set up informational pickets. The lockout lasted years, the company did not capitulate, the picketers eventually tired of the long hours of picketing and disbanded. I cannot tell you what Hostess corporate is planning, but it looks very much like they are out to break the union. They may even be positioning themselves for a relocation overseas, probably just waiting on that pesky FDA to drop the restrictions on kitchen cleanliness and worker hygiene.
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A few closing questions: Do you feel safe in your current work environment? When was the last major accident recorded where you work where a worker was seriously injured of died as a result of the injuries? Before unions workplace safety was a joke and dying in the workplace was commonplace. I would suggest that you read some of the workplace safety enactments that came about after the unions started defending the worker's rights.
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I have worked for forty-six years and all but six of those years under a union contract. And if the US Army had a union I would have forty-six years of union supported labor. I cannot be convinced that I would have been better served had I not had union support.
The products they sell are crap.
With Obamacare coming, preventative care/healthy lifestyle is even more important.
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The Union sure showed them! Â Give me more or I'll strike in this economy ??
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Idiots.  And to think they paid thousands of dollars in Union dues for that advice.  There's nothing wrong with being a union member so long as you are not led like sheep.  If you are, if you can't vote NO to a strike these days, well, keep paying the union jobs even when the doors close because of your actions.
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Because of union action - 3 plants closed and many, many people such as janitors, secretaries, sales staff - they lost too.
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Really union? Â In this economy?
 @sentryone The union did not say it wanted more for the employees, it only wanted to keep what the employees already had. Corporate was asking for wage cuts and cuts in healthcare; corporate had already eliminated retirement benefits. The employees did not ask for more, it was the Bakery Leadership was demanding concessions from the workforce. The workers had been working without a contract since September and without a contract the employees were being force-feed an already reject offer. It is all in the article, if you do not believe me please re-read it for yourself.
 @left-center  @sentryone I read the article too bad good luck job hunting......of course you won't until unemployment runs out
@left-center @sentryone I would say that those people running Hostess really do SUCK!
And let us not forget that company management gave themselves an 80% wage/salary INCREASE just prior to this. They are acting in the typical plutocratic fashion... I
"I've got mine... now you get less"
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I cannot fault the union for this. All of you folks harping about how they should be grateful they had a job... Thats how this country's standard of living will decrease. Not because of our debt or debt ceiling but because we let those RWNJs convince us that there is no alternative. There IS an alternative. THEY... Management can bear the cost of sacrifice too... afterall it was their poor planning, or failure to act or respond that caused a downturn in business. The poor guy on the line filling twinkiwes had nothing to do with that and could not effect that.
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WAKE UP AMREICA before its too late.
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FORWARD!
 @left-center  @Elvis  @EMDF9A sorry about the reality but it was other Africans that caught and sold their fellow Africans
 @left-center  @EMDF9A You are right! There is no comparison between slavery and the union workplace. There sure HAS historically been a comparison to slavery and the NON-union workplace.
 @Elvis  @EMDF9A Not funny. Black Africans were brought to America in chains after being kidnapped from their homeland then bought and sold like cattle to work for the rich American for nothing more than a daily meal, the clothes they wore and the ground they slept on. There is no comparison between slavery of the black African and a union workplace. To state otherwise belittles both issues.
 @EMDF9A A lot of slaves were grateful they had a place to sleep.
Gee, I guess the Union's can't hear. I wonder if a company making enough money to stay in business is something new to them or would they rather just shut them down so we have to support them instead??? More and more the demands from the unions have exceeded the ability of a company to stay in business and then they wonder why the business is moving to China, Mexico, and other countries. It is not only for greater profits.
One of my young sons is union, a "laborer" totally unskilled, in construction - he makes more, has benefits, and has more steady work than my non-union older son who is an  experienced and skilled finish carpenter. my older son has recently  taken a job out of state where he has a "right to work" in order to support his family (without benefits by the way). i'm very proud of both of them for doing what they must to take care of their families. Union work is great when one can get it, but a paycheck is also great.
Do to the fact that there is nearly zero health benefit and some danger in consuming their products, I'm having trouble feeling sorry for them.
@Elvis Obama will take care of the healthcare benefits by forcing people with little income to purchase insurance. Now if you can draw entitlements, you will have no problem with healthcare. Such a society we have today.
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Given the likelihood that the strikers voted to re-elect Obama, I can barely contain my schadenfreude.
Guess the union showed them!
Yet another greedy business that will lose mine. Same with Papa John's and Applebee's.
 @April N hey dummy they already closed how are they going to "lose your business?" DAH
 @April N Unions are as corrupt as any business or govt.
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@TruthinAdverts @SandyBeach @April N -- I have news for you . . . a lot of people I know are facing working conditions, benefits, and wages that are backsliding. It's a sign of our terrible economy. I haven't had a cost of living raise in three years and the cost of my insurance has risen in leaps and bounds. Why do union workers think they should be exempt from what he rest of the country is having to endure?
 @TruthinAdverts  @SandyBeach  @April N Unions just make everything cost more and helps elect socialist.
@TruthinAdverts And someone convinced you that unions are the second coming of Christ. We are all entitled to our opinions and just because someone doesn't agree with yours, does not mean mean that they are "foolish"
Unions have driven every business they ever get involved in .Over time the legacy costs just sink the business. remeber Teamsters were for truck drivers. No longer are there over the road Teamsters. The steel industry,the AMERICAN  auto industry. The auto industries legacy costs now get paid by the federal government. {we the tax payer}  . This just shows the greed and selfishness of unions.Â
 @Maynard G Krebbs it did well for Boeing didn't it - pushing thousands of jobs to South Carolina.
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Union greed just does not know when to stop
 @Maynard G Krebbs If you want to see greed and selfishness, get rid of all unions and watch businesses have a field day over being able to exploit their workers for profit unchecked.
 @jowsuf  @Maynard G Krebbs come on down to Texas darlinÂ
 @jowsuf Unions in this time have a place for "checks and balances" .When unions strive to ever higher labor  and legacy costs they are as greedy and selfish as any business. Most of the "hard won" benefits are just that. try to maintain them and get small increases in pay,but to force businesses out is hurting everyone.Â
Profit over people strikes again.
 @jowsuf is that a sheep you are cozying up to?
 @jowsuf excuse me how does a business stay in business if it doesn't make a profit ?Â
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 @TruthinAdverts  @Maynard G Krebbs  @jowsuf Right, the mark-up on a pack of Twinkies must be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
There's no plant overhead;Â maintenance, rent, electricity, water - all of these have remained stagnant all these years. Â Greedy bastards. Â They need to give all the profit to the workers. Â Or guess what? Â We'll work elsewhere. Â There's plenty of jobs out there.
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Any person would have been willing to work here for $18 per hour, health benefits, and vacation. Â Well, any sane non-union American hungry for work.
 @Maynard G Krebbs Don't be naive. This company is making profit. Just not what it wants to make. The rich aren't getting richer at the same speed anymore. This was a statement, not an act of desperation.
That sux they are closing, but I don't blame them at all, Go Hostess!!!
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 @TruthinAdverts  @Bella I do not have a flag posted but mine would be Texas. I advocate that the bakers do not get unemployment. My flag says," Texas women shoot their own snakes." It does not specify legs or no legs