On Nov. 16, Hostess Brands announced that they were going out of business.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the bakery behind Twinkies, Ho-Hos, Sno Balls, and more asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to close their doors and lay off their workers, blaming an international labor strike as the cause.
Getting the media-approved facts straight here, Hostess is kaput because workers wanted their fair share and all this striking led the Twinkie-business to run out of funds.
That’s just fine and dandy, except for the fact that Hostess went bankrupt in 2004. Two bankruptcies in ten years? Something’s fishy around there.
It seems more like Hostess has had a history of bad management that led to the extreme cuts in the first place. It’s possible that going out of business was just the inevitable for them. Get the poor managers out of high leadership positions so that this won’t happen again.
Of course, if they’re closed down for good, there is no chance of bad managing happening again. So, luckily, that’s out of the question.
It’s also a really strong statement that all these workers made a stand for their wages and benefits — to the point where they brought a big-name corporation down. The fact that that is being given as the official reason for Hostess’ demise is really big — think a rolling Sno Ball big — because, honestly, how often do a bunch of minimum wage workers make that big of an impact like this?
Who knows if getting Hostess to shut down was the workers’ ultimate goal. We don’t know that and it’s highly unlikely that we ever will. I don’t think we could say that this is a triumph or a loss on their part with that in mind.
But the Twinkies. Oh, the Twinkies. Where will college students like us be getting these confectionary goodness now? It’s a staple of childhoods — trading fruit to the one kid who had the treasure that is creamy frosting in a sponge cake. Will it go the way of Oreo O’s and just disappear from popular culture forever?
Homemade versions of these treats could prove to be satisfactory, but will it be good enough to replace the sugar in our hearts?
The whole situation seems very confusing with a lot of back history and PR-manufactured quotes. Nothing in a situation like this is simple.
But the Twinkie man in his ten gallon hat and boots and spurs will be a missed image.
