Days after Hostess Foods filed for bankruptcy after workers failed to call of their industrial action, the company has obtained permission from the courts to immediately fire 15,000 workers on the eve of Thanksgiving. The company has plans to keep a skeleton staff to help with the winding down of operations while they try to find buyers for the various components of the company. By selling the company in a piecemeal fashion Hostess may be able to realize over $2.4 billion. Many different companies have indicated their interest in the numerous parts of the Hostess empire, from regional bakers to national retail chains.
Hostess wanted to shed workers as soon as possible as it was costing over $1 million a day in payroll costs without any income. Hostess has said it will close 33 bakery plants, 565 distribution centers and 570 outlet stores.
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You all know that Hostess had this planned all along to get out of paying the daily wage bill. The company will be dissected and they will sell each brand or line off to highest bidder. The only people who lose out are the workers – not the consumers, not Hostess, not the buyers, just the 18,000 staff who will be unemployed.
I bet that the hostess brands management did not lose their jobs on the eve of thanksgiving, I bet they got bonuses for 86′ing the staff.
It was very bad timing that Hostess decided to go into Bankruptcy just before thanksgiving, I wonder if that was timed to make the unions look bad?