If you wanna see a real life example of how the parasite kills the host look no further than Hostess Brands Inc.
Rocky Mount, N.C. — Hostess Brands Inc. filed a motion in federal bankruptcy court early Friday, seeking permission to shutter operations and end production of the snack cakes and breads known to generations of Americans.
The Texas-based company said in a statement on its website that it will try to sell its assets, including the iconic Twinkie, Ding Dong and Wonder Bread brands. Bakery operations have been suspended at all 36 plants, including one in Rocky Mount, following a week-long strike by thousands of workers protesting 8 percent wage cuts and benefit concessions.
In its statement, Hostess said the strike “crippled the company’s ability to produce and deliver products at multiple facilities.”
Already-baked products will continue to be delivered, and the company said its retail stores will remain open for a few days to sell off remaining stock.
“We deeply regret the necessity of today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike,” Chief Executive Gregory Rayburn said. “Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.”
In essence, the union was negotiating either an 8% wage cut or a 100% wage cut. The union decided that they wanted the 100% version.
However, unlike in other cases where the economic realities are hidden and not immediately obvious to the employees, the workers at the plant here in Rocky Mount North Carolina are keenly aware of the decision they are making:
The company has about 18,300 employees, including about 275 in Rocky Mount.
“We’re not in the dark. We know exactly what’s going to happen,” Hoffman said, “They’re going to shut the plant. They’re going to shut down all the (plants in the) United States.”
I have to hand it to the workers here in Rocky Mount. North Carolina is a “right to work” state where workers can’t be forced to join a union. Further, these workers were not yet affected by the contractual mess, they were simply honoring the picket lines of those workers elsewhere. However, the actions of these employees acting on behalf of their unions have caused the corporation to go bankrupt. The business will be sold off and these workers have lost their job in an economy that has continued to sputter along.
18,000+ employees out of work due to the union.
Amazing.
A note concerning Twinkies and GM. I’ll bet you a candy bar that Hostess will sell everything. The machines, the the trucks, the buildings and THE NAMES. Someone will come along and buy the name “Hostess” and the name of every product they make. And they begin to produce these products but in a manner that is more able to offer a return on investment.
The same thing would have happened to GM.
It creates incentives that aren’t natural. People begin to look for ways to avoid paying their taxes and people begin to look for ways to maximize their TAKE of people’s taxes. Neither system works well.
