Twinkie Defense
No doubt you’re aware that Hostess, the makers of the pseudo-food guilty pleasures we have all enjoyed, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
While the Sno-Balls will keep rolling downhill for the foreseeable future, Hostess is looking for a way out of its “unsustainable cost structure,” which is finance-speak for its labor union obligations. The company’s largest debt – $944 million – is owed to the bakery and confectionary union pension fund. Last year, Hostess paid $52 million in workers compensation. Since 83% of the company’s 19,000 employees are unionized – far more than the industry average - it appears at the very least that layoffs and benefit cuts to union jobs are looming.
We can all join forces to save these jobs. Not only can we buy Twinkies ourselves, but we can stop trying to get kids to eat edamame as a school snack and hook them on Ding Dongs and Ho Hos. If Hostess was good enough for my generation, it should be good enough for them.
