Cashing in on Twinkies

I’ve been wondering about the Hostess bankruptcy in light of the fact that the blame is being placed squarely on unions for its fiscal problems. Unions, it seems, are under fire from every side. Unions brought us things like the weekend, the 40 hour work week, workman’s compensation, health insurance, and child labor laws. Things that we take for granted these days.

 

That and so much more.

But for some reason, unions are bad and corporations are good.

And Hostess, maker of such fine American products as Twinkies, Sno-balls, and an endless line of food products made of air and corn syrup has announced that it cannot proceed with business with the bad old unions driving them to bankruptcy court.

Never mind the fact that Americans equate Hostess products with Junk Food to such an extent that the former San Francisco County Commissioner who murdered Harvey Milk and George Moscone used what has been called the “Twinkie Defense” as an excuse for his crimes.

Hostess products, even in this age of American obesity, are such low sellers that it is a good thing that they are so heavily laced with food preservatives so their shelf life compares to that of a desert tortoise.

So I really doubted that their union problems were the sole reason for their financial troubles. And now I see that the other shoe has dropped. Hostess is declaring bankruptcy a little prematurely, according to afederal bankruptcy judge, as they have not yet gone into mediation with the unions.

It seems that they are just a little anxious just to get the whole thing over.

And now it seems that the US Trustee has determined that Hostess, in its bankruptcy settlement, is being a little too generous to its upper management and insiders.

In short, the company appears to be liquidating to line the pockets of its upper management under the smoke and mirrors of being abused by cruel and calculating unions.

But don’t worry, I won’t call for a boycott of Hostess products. No one I know buys the stuff anyway.