Twinkie, Twinkie, Little Star
America will be celebrating this July with parades and fireworks. That’s right, the Twinkie is back!
The private equity firms Metropoulos & Co and Apollo Global Management, which teamed up to revive a defunct Hostess Brands Inc., are reopening four Twinkie plants over the next ten weeks and plan to fill shelves with the classic American treat, hopefully by the 4th of July.
While little Maggie Johnson and thousands of others are salivating over the Twinkie’s comeback, the unions are salivating over the factories that are reopening.
In February, the President of the Bakery, Confectionery Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) union, David Durkee, was sanguine that his union members would once again be manning the plants, claiming that “only our members know how to get that equipment running. A work force off the street will not be able to accomplish that.”
However, he spoke too soon.
Metropoulos and Apollo have absolutely no intentions of hiring any union worker at their Hostess facilities. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal this past Wednesday, Chief Executive C. Dean Metropoulos explained that his company does “not expect to be involved in the union going forward.”
Can you blame him?
Hostess had once provided nearly 19,000 jobs in its 11 plants, but was driven to bankruptcy in November 2012; expensive union contracts were pushing the company to its limit, a limit that was reached after a costly Baker’s union strike. Having learned by example, Metropoulos and Apollo know that in order to avoid making the same mistakes as the previous management, they must steer clear of unions.
The Hostess plants are reopening in Georgia, Kansas, Illinois, and Indiana. These factories, four of which are located in right-to-work states, will employ over 1,500 workers.
This July, America celebrates independence from Great Britain. And Hostess celebrates independence from the Baker’s union.