In another blow to the unions-killed-the-Twinkie-thereby-depriving-future-generations-of-a-real-American-childhood storyline -- if that wasn't already enough of a laughable oversimplification -- the Morning News is reporting that Hostess was actually preparing for liquidation more than a year before workers with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike.
Per the News, documents filed in Hostess' bankruptcy case show that the company hired a consultant back around July 2011 to take a look at what the company's assets would bring in if dismantled and sold off. That's some 16 months before union workers voted to strike on November 9, 2012.
Hostess spokesman Lance Ignon told the News that the company was "engaged in contingency planning, including the preparation of a liquidation analysis, months before the strike, given the uncertainty around labor negotiations."
Ignon neglects to mention that the company was laden with debt, went through seven CEOs in a decade, utterly failed to adapt to changing tastes, and was by no means blameless in its battle with the unions having, for example, diverted money intended for worker's pension to fund day-to-day Twinkie-making. Putting the whole thing on the union is like blaming ship builders for sinking the Titanic.
At least the Twinkie melodrama will be over soon. Hostess expects to have the sale of many brands completed by mid-March, according to the New. Then, perhaps, America will no longer have to endure Great Value Golden Creme Cakes.
