Bad news for the Utah economy this morning, as the Standard announces that "Hostess Brands Inc. says it's going out of business after striking workers across the country crippled its ability to make its Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Wonder Bread and other snacks":
Hostess employs about 570 people in Salt Lake City and Ogden, which are "home to two of its 36 regional bakeries," according to this morning's Salt Lake Tribune story:
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It's a sign of the times, we guess, in a crippled US economy and market where a union labor-produced product like Wonder Bread demands a buck per loaf premium over a nearly identical white bread product produced in a non-union shop.
And for those fanciers of Hostess's more delectable and exotic products, (Twinkies and Ding Dongs, for instance), don't make the mistake of thinking you can rush down to your local grocery and fill your pantry with a product which will last on your food storage shelves forever. The myth that a Hostess Twinkie (or a pack of Ding-Dongs, for that matter) will remain edible for "anywhere between fifty and one hundred years" has been thoroughly debunked:
But look at the bright side, Twinkie fanciers. We've scoured the net and have come up with a home kitchen recipe for those who don't wish to go totally "cold turkey" on Twinkies. Drumroll... here it is:
Does Weber County Forum cover the Ogden Lumpencitizens' backs on every important issue? Nevermind answering; we already know the answer to that.
Update 11/16/12 5:15 p.m.: This was inevitable, we suppose, with the increasing popularity of the White House citizen petition site:
Update 11/16/12 6:13 p.m.: Fox 13 News is now running a video story on this, which includes an interview with rarely-seen Ogden Mayor Mike Caldwell, who's possibly barely recognizable to most Ogdenites sans his usual bicycling apparel:
Who knows? Maybe with a little luck, and some help from Ogden City's vaunted Economic Development Department, Mayor Mike might be able to hook up a few displaced Ogden Hostess employees with nice minimum wage jobs at Ogden's very newest bakery outfit.
So what say our gentle readers about all this?
Update 11/17/12 9:00 a.m.: And so begins the inevitable post-mortem exam:
Of course the right-wing media is quick to blame the unions, but in the end the union members would have lost more if they had capitulated to the vulture capitalists demands. By this move, they can hope to salvage the retirement plan, while if they’d given in they would have lost it all. $2 billion is a lot of money to just “give away” in negotiations. Of course the unions were expected to surrender despite the fact that the management company was asking the bankruptcy court to give their outgoing CEO up to $5.5 million. All of this was in addition to the 80% raises the executives were being treated to.
