Showdown In Ho-Ho Town...Stop Blaming The Union.

WonderbreadDoesn'tLiveHereAnymore
TwinkieDefenseVille


And who might be saying anti-lazy-ass wire story conventional soundbite wisdom stuff like that?

Commie-pinko labour apologists?

Well.

Actually....

It comes from Michael Hitzlik writing in the Business section of the LA Times. Here is Hitzlik's lede, and a wee bit more:


Let's get a few things clear. Hostess didn't fail for any of the reasons you've been fed. It didn't fail because Americans demanded more healthful food than its Twinkies and Ho-Hos snack cakes. It didn't fail because its unions wanted it to die.

It failed because the people that ran it had no idea what they were doing. Every other excuse is just an attempt by the guilty to blame someone else...

{snippety doo-dah}

...Hostess management's efforts to blame union intransigence for the company's collapse persisted right through to the Thanksgiving eve press release announcing Hostess' liquidation, when it cited a nationwide strike by bakery workers that "crippled its operations."

That overlooks the years of union givebacks and management bad faith. Example: Just before declaring bankruptcy for the second time in eight years Jan. 11, Hostess trebled the compensation of then-Chief Executive Brian Driscoll and raised other executives' pay up to twofold. At the same time, the company was demanding lower wages from workers and stiffing employee pension funds of $8 million a month in payment obligations...


It never ceases to amaze me how often it turns out to be the case these days that, the more you know, the more the conventional 'wisdom' turns out to be anything but.

Selah.

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