What is an Amazon factory? Is it in the Amazon jungle or does Amazon.com have a bunch of factories?

lol

the latter

all that stuff people order off of amazon gets packed up somewhere,,...

http://laborpains.org/2012/11/13/unions-strike-of-bankrupt-company-half-baked/

Union’s Strike of Bankrupt Company Half-Baked

Unions like to portray themselves as the ones who fight back and balance out the equation between employees and management. But realistically, they are the yin to the company’s yang: employees and employers are interdependent, and one cannot exist without the other.

This lesson is most clear today at Hostess, where 627 employees lost their job after Hostess Brands, Inc. announced on Monday that it is permanently closing three of its 36 bakeries in response to a strike by the bakers union that began on November 9 with a walkout in Kansas. The strikes spread throughout the country, but those working at the bakeries in Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Seattle will be striking against factories that will not reopen.

Yet even with hundreds of workers out of jobs, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) has not called off the strike. It could be that BCTGM smells blood. The strike may bring the company to the brink and force it to liquidate. The maker of Twinkies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January and has been trying to restructure its debt to stay afloat. Hostess has toyed with a number of resolutions, even offering unions a 25 percent stake in the company. The Teamsters have already decided to accept a new collective bargaining agreement with the company. Because BCTGM didn’t settle with Hostess, a bankruptcy judge allowed the company to cancel its agreement with the union and impose a new contract that included wage and pension cuts.

Although the strike is only a few days old, it has already proved costly for BCTGM workers, but there are no signs that the walkout will cease anytime soon. Hostess’s CEO, Gregory Rayburn, stated what he thinks is on the mind of the BCTGM:

Some employees are apparently under the misimpression that if they force Hostess to liquidate, another company will buy our bakeries and offer them employment… The fact is, the bakery industry already has far too much capacity, and there is a strong risk that many of our facilities may never operate as bakeries again once they are closed. I believe the leadership of the Bakers Union knows this fact, but is willing to sacrifice its Hostess employees for the sake of preventing other bakery companies from asking for similar concessions. [emphasis added]

Some might question this as an empty threat, but business appears to be seriously affected.

This is another case of unions destructive behavior. In October, American Airlines pilots were aggravating the company and thousands of customers by calling in excessive maintenance repairs, causing massive delays, as a form of putting union pressure on the management. This, too, occurred while American Airlines faced, and continues to face, Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This hurt the brand and put it the company at further risk of losing more business. It now appears that the pilots and the airline are close to a deal, so perhaps the prospect of job losses (and a legal threat over the allegedly illegal job action) came into play.

The Hostess scenario is a repeat of the pilots union experience—except that Hostess is more willing to close up shop than be fiscally irresponsible and give in to union demands. Nevertheless, BCTGM continues to strike despite the very real threat to — and now realized loss of — union employee jobs.

The Teamsters, on the other hand, saw the writing on the wall.

“This was a difficult decision [to approve of Hostess’s offer],” said Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall in the statement. “Our members are frustrated at being in the position to bail out the company again, but overall we’re willing to accept modifications with the hope that Hostess will recover and be in a better position in the years to come. At the end of the day, our members recognized that they can’t replace their pay and benefits in the nonunion sector.”

Rhetoric aside, the Teamsters recognized that a job with reduced benefits is better than no job at all. For consumers, it might be hard to part with the Twinkie and other Hostess treats (although there are some good recipes out there for making your own small batches at home). But BCTGM members, as well as other union employees, may find themselves out of work in short order.

http://youtu.be/MeS6DvyLScE

While I preferred Zingers to Twinkies anyway (they're iced, totally a bonus!), there is only one question here that needs to be addressed...


With no Twinkies, what will we eat after the zombie apocalypse???

3 plants shut their doors. Some 18,500 workers unemployed as of this morning.

Seriously? Hell. It seems government love to exaggerate with anything and everything. People should be able to eat what the hell they want. What will they ban next? Houses? Long hair? Toilets? I could go on. Absolutely pathetic. People can go mad without sugar. Fact. Seriously. It's getting stoooooooooooooooopid.

Hostess, the maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread, is going out of business.


Associated Press

Posted on November 16, 2012 at 6:34 AM

Updated today at 8:02 AM

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Hostess, the maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread, is going out of business.


18,000 now jobless.
Gotta love those unions.

That should teach the greedy corporations a thing or two.

http://bastiat.mises.org/2012/11/twinkies-to-the-twinkiemen/
(links)

http://laborpains.org/2012/11/16/hostess-to-liquidate-due-to-bakers-union-strike/

Hostess to Liquidate Due to Baker’s Union Strike

Hostess Brands, Inc., the makers of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, announced this morning that after a one-week strike by the baker’s union, the company will move to liquidate all of its assets and shut down for good.

The members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) walked out of many of Hostess’s 36 bakeries on November 9 in protest of the new contract ordered by a bankruptcy court judge. Hostess filed for bankruptcy in January and has tried for several months to restructure. The deal offered to the BCTGM, similar to the one accepted by Hostess’s largest union, the Teamsters, called for wage and pension reductions that were necessary to keep the company afloat.

On Wednesday, the company gave BCTGM a 5:00 p.m. ET Thursday deadline to get back to work or face the layoffs of 18,500 employees. “We simply do not have the financial resources to survive an ongoing national strike,” CEO Gregory Rayburn said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Hostess shuttered three of its 36 bakeries permanently due to the strike. Nonetheless, BCTGM pressed on and defied the strike deadline on Thursday. Rayburn said Monday that he believed the BCTGM “is willing to sacrifice its Hostess employees for the sake of preventing other bakery companies from asking for similar concessions.”

In a statement released this morning, the company explained:

Hostess Brands is unprofitable under its current cost structure, much of which is determined by union wages and pension costs. The offer to the BCTGM included wage, benefit and work rule concessions but also gave Hostess Brands’ 12 unions a 25 percent ownership stake in the company, representation on its Board of Directors and $100 million in reorganized Hostess Brands’ debt.

Because of the strike, even the Teamsters, who agreed to the new deal, will be out of work. In all, Hostess’s liquidation will affect the remaining 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, 570 bakery outlet stores, and roughly 5,500 delivery routes. The assets will be put up for auction and sold to the highest bidder.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/NATL-Twinkies-Maker-Hostess-Going-Out-of-Business-179643161.html

Sounds like the workers voted to screw thenselves.

Let's just hope the greedy biches can't get unemployment and the Union spent their strike funds.
Sounds like Hostess wanted to be fair.

Yep 5,600 greedy union bakers not willing to compromise on a contract cased a total of 18,500 people to lose their jobs.

seems a company in bankruptcy was already in trouble, sure would like to know whose 'greed' caused that,,,,,

Obviously it either wasn't run well or because of the economy they weren't able to keep the company afloat without some sort of compromise amongst the employees.
5,600 of them weren't willing to compromise so they held the fate of the othe 13,000 in their hands. Guess the union really cares about the jobs of their members.

unions take gambles, this time they lost,, other times they win

but maybe Hostess is just fated to eventually fail and be replaced with other product,,,,

Guess I better stock up on my chocolate zingers..I already have 7 boxes, better get more!

I'm sure the 13,000 who weren't represented by the bakers union appreciate that gamble.
They were asked to take a 8% pay cut. They would get 2 % a year back the next 3 years then the 4th year get a 1% raise. 13,000 agreed to it but because the 5,600 bakers wouldn't they are all now out of a job.

Unions sure taught them a lesson.

Now to go stock up on Twinkies....

POWER OF THE PEOPLE.

In truth, the company was in deep financial doo doo.

Sometimes its better to let it fall. Take it off life support and let it die.

No, this time the union won, the workers lost.

If only their unions had been as strong as the UAW the government may have bailed them out.