Confirming what we already knew, Hostess has asked its bankruptcy judge to rewrite its collective bargaining commitments and modify its pension obligations. The company claims labor costs, “arcane work rules” and union pension plan debt load put Hostess at a “profound competitive disadvantage.” The company says it is going through a “cash burn” of $2 million per week, and that the competitive burden of its multiple convoluted collective bargaining agreement obligations has “never been meaningfully addressed.” The Teamsters responded, as one would expect, with the usual union blubbering, even as the union still demands that Hostess and Wonder products be delivered on separate trucks and Teamsters truck drivers never be required to touch product. And, per usual, the union confuses blaming the union with blaming the workers who we suspect would agree to both drive and unload the Twinkies (and to a single employer pension plan) if it meant keeping their jobs. “The company has struggled as it pursued misguided strategies under revolving management,” the Teamsters said in its statement. “Meanwhile, Teamster Hostess members have sacrificed greatly over the past seven years. For Hostess to pin the blame on its employees is unconscionable and demonstrates how out of touch management is with its workforce.”
