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Friday, November 16, 2012

Hostess Shuts Doors

HOSTESS.

HOW COULD YOU???

I can't begin to tell you how really frickin' angry I am right now.

Well, okay, not to the extent of sticking a TV remote up my ass but...

I REALLY AM FRICKIN' PISSED.

People are paying an average of $30 per box of Twinkies on eBay.

Stocking up...in HD of course lolz

How could this happen?  Hostess?  The makers of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, Chocodiles, Donuts, Donettes, Fruit Pies, Snowballs, Cup Cakes, and Zingers.  All gone like that.

Logically all of these will be bought over by someone or another and they'll BRB but in the meantime it's like WTF yo?

Apparently the bakers union had been on strike in a contract dispute.  Hostess wanted to cut their benefits and pensions due to financial issues over the past couple years, including filing for bankruptcy in 2004.  Hostess wanted the bakers to take some cuts, the bakers said no, so now no one has anything.  18,500 people are out of a job and now no one gets any Twinkies or Ho Hos or Zingers.

This is the kind of nonsense our politics have created and yes, I actually am blaming the political landscape.  In Washington there's been this attitude of all or nothing over the past few years without any compromise.  Sure, you'll get the eggheads saying "we're happy to work across the aisle...as long as they agree with everything we say."  As a result nothing gets done.  That's not political opinion - that's fact.  You have to work together to accomplish things.  If you have 50 cents and your friend has 50 cents and the two-pack of Twinkies you're after costs a dollar, YOU HAVE TO COMBINE FORCES.

I guess in a way I respect Hostess for calling the union's bluff but I don't like what it lead to.  Circa 2002 the MLB Umpire's Union or whatever it's called wanted to negotiate new figures for a contract even though it wasn't a collective bargaining year.  The MLB refused to listen, so 20 or so umps turned in their resignation papers with the idea that with half of the umpire force threatening to walk off, the MLB will have to listen to them.  Well...the MLB accepted their resignation and 20 people were promptly out of a job and that was the end of that.  New umps were hired and blah, blah, blah.

The difference is that the MLB could always hire new umps without breaking a sweat.  Hostess, not so much.  That's why I'm furious that both sides couldn't come to some kind of compromise or find another way to take care of this.  I don't know the specifics of the bakers' benefits so I can't say if they deserved more.  But right now no one has anything so...

Hostess will be missed.  But do not worry - there will be others.