The day the Twinkie died: Hostess to shut down and lay off 18,500 workers after crippling strike
Nhân viên hãng làm bánh ngọt Twikies và
bánh mì Wonder Bread bị áp lực đình công, công ty không thể giao hàng cho khách
đúng hạn kỳ nên tuyên bố đóng cửa 33 xưởng trên toàn nước Mỹ và 18,500 nhân
viên sẽ về nhà "ngồi chơi xơi nước", ăn tiền thất nghiệp.
Trước đó phần lớn công nhân đã đồng ý cắt
8% lương cho khế ước năm tới nhưng những nhân viên nghiệp đoàn không chịu. Bây
giờ "há hốc miệng" ra với nhau. "Già néo đứt giây" là vậy!
Hostess is closing its 33 plants, laying off its
18,500 workers and putting its snack brands up for sale
Thousands of company workers went on strike last
week after rejecting a contract offer that cut wages and benefits
Union
boss: 'It's a very sad day. People hoped to work and retire there'
PUBLISHED: 09:16 EST, 16
November 2012 |
Things aren’t so sweet for Hostess employees right now.
The
maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread is going out of business, closing
plants, laying off its 18,500 workers and putting its brands up for
sale.
'I
don't think it's a stretch to say there's a lot of sadness today,'
Hostess spokesman Tom Becker said, adding: '18,500 people had jobs
yesterday and knew they weren't going to have jobs anymore when they
woke up today.'
The 82-year-old company, based in Irving, Texas,
said a nationwide worker strike crippled its ability to make and
deliver products, which include Ding Dongs, Ho Ho’s, Dolly Madison and
Drake's cakes.
Scroll down for video
Shut: A sign taped onto the door of Hostess plant is seen in St. Louis as the company goes out of business
Farewell: The maker of Twinkies and CupCakes is going out of business and laying off thousands of workers
'There's no way to soften the fact
that this will hurt every Hostess Brands employee,' the company's chief
executive, Gregory Rayburn, said in a letter to employees. 'All Hostess
Brands employees will eventually lose their jobs - some sooner than
others.'
Hostess had warned
its workers that it would file a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to
unwind its business and sell assets if plant operations didn't return to
normal levels by Thursday evening.
It
went ahead and filed the motion on Friday, but said deliveries will
continue and Hostess Brands retail stores will stay open for several
days to sell already-baked products.
Yet
the eventual closure will shutter 33 bakeries, 565 distribution
centers, 570 bakery outlet stores and approximately 5,500 delivery
routes, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, leaving thousands out of work.
Out of work: Lee Byers mans the picket line outside the closed Wonder Bread bakery in Lenexa, Kansas
On strike: Striking worker and Chief Steward
Kravis Pfeiffer from the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and
Grain Millers International Union, representing Hostess workers in
Peoria, Illinois
Angry employees: Workers gather to strike outside the Hostess bakery in Memphis earlier this week
'It’s a very sad day because there's
lots of history there,' Donald Woods, president of the Local 1 union
that represents 500 workers at Hostess plants in Schiller Park, Hodgkins and Peoria, Illinois told the Sun-Times.
'We have members who've had 40 years there. ... Their dream was working there and retire there.'
Valorie
Smith, who has worked at the Hostess packing plant in Schiller Park for
27 years, stood outside her workplace on Friday with a group of fellow
employees waiting to hear the news.
Smith,
50, said the 10- to 12-hour shifts were tough. 'I gave it my all here,'
she lamented to the Sun-Times. 'It’s hard on your body. It breaks you
down.'
The
privately held company filed for Chapter 11
protection in January, its second trip through bankruptcy court in less
than a decade.
Fighting back: Union members with Bakery,
Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International picket
across the street from the Hostess owned Dolly Madison bakery in
Emporia, Kansas on Wednesday
Waiting game: Picketers play cards outside of the Hostess plant in St. Louis on Friday
Outrage: Diana McKinley, a 33-year employee of Hostess, pickets on Thursday in Sacramento, California
Over: The closure affects 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, 570 bakery stores and 5,500 delivery routes
‘Many people
have worked incredibly long and hard to keep this from happening, but
now Hostess Brands has no other alternative than to begin the process of
winding down and preparing for the sale of our iconic brands,’ Rayburn
said.
'We deeply regret the necessity of
today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather
an extended nationwide strike.'
But union members said the company only has itself to blame.
Thousands of members of the Bakery,
Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union
went on strike last week after rejecting a contract offer in September
that cut wages and benefits.
Most
of the company's employees had approved an eight per cent pay cut for
the coming year, but the members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco
Workers and Grain Millers International Union had voted against the cut
and a change in the pension plan.
Iconic brand: A Hostess Twinkies sign is shown at the Utah Hostess plant in Ogden, Utah
Pulling out: A Hostess Wonder Bread truck is shown in front of the Utah Hostess plant in Ogden
'The crisis facing Hostess
Brands is the result of nearly a decade of financial and operational
mismanagement that resulted in two bankruptcies, mountains of debt,
declining sales and lost market share,' the union said in a statement.
'The
Wall Street investors who took over the company after the last
bankruptcy attempted to resolve the mess by attacking the company’s most
valuable asset – its workers.'
Hostess
has said that production at about a dozen of its 33 plants has been
seriously affected by the strike. Three plants were closed earlier this
week.
The company, founded
in 1930, was fighting battles beyond labor costs. Competition is
increasing in the snack space and Americans are becoming more conscious
about healthy eating.
A HISTORY OF TWINKIES: AMERICA'S FAVORITE SNACK FOOD & PUNCHLINE
The
quintessential junk food treat - a cream-filled, 150-calorie sponge
cake - has been called the "cream puff of the proletariat" and the
"snack with a snack in the middle." It faces extinction now that its
maker, Hostess Brands, announced plans to liquidate amid a dispute with
striking bakers.* James A. Dewar, a manager for the Continental Baking Co, came up with the idea in 1930 after seeing the machines that made shortcakes with strawberry filling sit idle at the bakery when strawberries were out of season. He injected the elongated sponge cake with banana filling - vanilla would be used later - and called it a Twinkie after seeing a billboard for the Twinkle Toe Shoe Company. Dewar, who died in 1985 at age 88, said he ate at least two packets of Twinkies a week.
* Twinkies were scorned by nutritionists as the archetypal unhealthy snack and became a comic's punch line, but somebody is eating them. Hostess was able to manufacture 1,000 a minute at its bakeries and in 2005 the Washington Post said Americans had bought $47 million worth of Twinkies in the previous year.
* Many jokes about Twinkies play off their longevity thanks to their ample chemical preservatives. There has been much speculation about how many decades a Twinkie can sit on a shelf before being eaten. For the sake of freshness, Theresa Cogswell of the Twinkies' parent company Hostess, has said that no more than 25 days was ideal but a Maine college professor gained notoriety by keeping one atop his blackboard for 30 years. He said it still looked good.
* In 2000 President Bill Clinton's White House Millennium Council put together a time capsule in order to give people in 2100 an idea of how we lived. Its contents included historic items such as a piece of the Berlin Wall, film of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, a U.S. World War Two soldier's helmet, a photo of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks and a Twinkie.
* The trial of San Francisco city supervisor Dan White, who fatally shot the mayor and another supervisor in 1978, gave rise to what came to be known as the "Twinkie defense." The defense said White was suffering mental problems, as evidenced by the way he had given up his healthy lifestyle and started eating junk food. The defense argued that this behavior was an indication of his instability. White ended up serving five years in prison for voluntary manslaughter.
* Twinkies' surge in popularity in the 1950s was partially attributed to its ads on "The Howdy Doody Show" directed at kids, who demanded the desserts in their lunch boxes.
* Hostess collected recipes from connoisseurs to publish the "The Twinkies Cookbook" in 2006. The 50 recipes included Twinkie-based burritos, lasagna, tiramisu, milkshakes and sushi (with dried fruit rather than fish). Deep-fried Twinkies have been a staple at U.S. state fairs.
* The Twinkie has a long list of television and movie credits. Archie Bunker always had one in his lunch on the sitcom "All in the Family" and they have been featured in the animated series "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons." A character in "The Deer Hunter" eats Twinkies dipped in mustard. In the wacky comedy "Ghostbusters" a scientist tracking demons calculates that the level of "psychokinetic energy" in New York City could normally be as big as a Twinkie but things had become so bad that that Twinkie would now be 35 feet long and weigh 600 pounds (about 270 kg).
* Twinkies are just part of the Hostess snack food family. Other well-known treats from the company include Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, Suzy Q's, Sno Balls, Zingers and Drake's cakes.
* Twitter and other social media were filled with laments about a Twinkie-less world on Friday. Entrepreneurs and speculators turned to eBay. A box of 10 Twinkies was being offered on the online auction site for a starting bid of $500. "What better way to say, 'I love you' than with the gift of an American icon that will be gone soon," the seller said.
Twinkies eBay: Hostess Treats On Sale For $200,000 Amid Twinkie-pocalypse Fears
Posted: 11/16/2012 4:06 pm EST Updated: 11/17/2012 9:20 am EST
After Hostess Brands announced it's going out of business following a labor dispute, panicked consumers have rushed to stores to stock up on their favorite heart-clogging treats:I sent my mom a text that says "Time to stock up on Hostess products. TIME TO TEST THE SHELF LIFE OF TWINKIES ONCE AND FOR ALL" #imweird
One eBay seller is auctioning off a full box of Twinkies at a starting (and staggering) price of $200,000 (shipping included):
As Mashable notes, there's also an individual Twinkie that is up for sale for $5,000.
"This is your opportunity to own a piece of history, a delicious piece at that," wrote the seller, who apparently lives in Raleigh, N.C., in the auction description.
The eBay user added that the Twinkie will be "protectively packaged and shipped to the winning bidder."
Elsewhere on eBay, three boxes of Hostess Chocodiles are on sale for a more reasonable price of $89.95 and a box of Ding Dongs is being offered for $19.95.
But before you whip out your checkbook, remember that Twinkies and other Hostess treats may still have a chance at survival.
As The Huffington Post notes, Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn has said that "he plans to try to seek a buyer for Hostess's brands, including Twinkies."
"I'm certainly hopeful that we can sell the brands and the brands will live on. They're iconic," he said on CNBC. Hostess Brands the company, however, is has met its final end.
"It's over. This is it," Rayburn said.
Check out some of the most expensive memorabilia we found on eBay:
(One Example)
Single Twinkies, $5,000
eBay user pingsing24 is trying to unload "single Twinkies" for $5,000.
His product description is actually quite persuasive: "This is your
opportunity to own a piece of history, a delicious piece at that."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/twinkies-ebay-starting-bid-hostess-bankruptcy_n_2146273.html?view=print&comm_ref=false
There's a run on Twinkies! Beloved treat flies off the shelves after maker Hostess announces it is going out of business
|
There's a run on Twinkies! Beloved treat flies off the shelves after maker Hostess announces it is going out of business
- Hostess is closing its 33 plants, laying off its 18,500 workers and putting its snack brands up for sale
- Thousands of company workers went on strike last week after rejecting a contract offer that cut wages and benefits
- Fans of firm's products queue for last serving of Twinkies, Ding Dongs etc.
|
As the future of Twinkies hangs in
the balance, fans of the fatty treat are desperately stockpiling their
favourite snack in an effort to prevent the possibility of its
disappearance from America's cupboards.
Hostess,
the company which makes the cream-filled cakes along with other
childhood throwbacks such as Ho Hos, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread,
announced on Friday that it would go out of business within weeks.
And
while most of the firm's most iconic brands are likely to be snapped up
by other manufacturers, Twinkie die-hards were taking no chances after
the announcement.
Scroll down for video
Stocking up: Andy Wagar piles Twinkies and other Hostess products into his car in Bellingham, Washington
Taking no chances: Michelle Craft bought $100 worth of Hostess treats at a store in Denver on Friday
The snacks were flying off
shelves throughout the nation, and grocery store workers reported that
they were fast running out of Twinkies and other Hostess brands.
'We may have a few things left, but pretty much we're out of our Hostess stuff,' a store manager in Chicago told Businessweek.
And a spokesman for grocery chain Supervalu warned, 'We will only have the products while supplies last.'
Seeing the funny side: But Curtis Smout was taking precautions against the snacks' disappearance
Multi-generational: Heather Griffiths and her mother Dori team up to buy the Hostess treats they need
Customers flocked to the Wonder Hostess Bakery Coutlet in Indianapolis to get their hands on the fast-vanishing treats.
Charles Selke showed journalists his plastic bag stuffed with snacks, including Zingers dessert cakes.
'How
do these just disappear from your life?', he asked. 'That's just not
right, man. I'm loyal. I love these things, and I'm diabetic.'
For
others, the rush to snap up Hostess foodstuffs was motivated by
historic considerations, as in the case of Samantha Caldwell, from
Chicago.
She bought a pack of Twinkies to give to her four-year-old son, saying: 'This way he can say, "I had one of those."'
Demand: there were long lines outside the Hostess store in Denver when the company announced its demise
Shortage: Shoppers in Waterloo, Iowa were out of luck when the tried to stockpile the goodies
In New York City, many grocery
stores had run out of Twinkies by mid-afternoon, with only Hostess' less
popular products left over.
The shortage led to the snacks selling for wildly inflated prices on eBay and other online marketplaces.
One opportunistic seller managed to offload a box of 10 Twinkies - which would normally cost no more than $5 - for $60.
It
is unclear how long the sweet treats will stay fresh - while it is
widely rumoured that Twinkies remain edible for decades, it is unclear
to what extent that is true.
Leftovers: The most popular snacks such as Twinkies were completely sold out in some Manhattan stores
Gaps: New York City bodegas were fast running out of Hostess products such as Wonder Bread
