Death to Twinkies!

In 1930, James Dewar, the manager of the Chicago Hostess Bakery plant, was probably tired. He spent most of his days overseeing the tedious production of the company's delicious cakes. Complete with strawberry filling, the variety of pastries produced in Chicago were certainly being enjoyed by people all over the country.

According to history, Mr. Dewar noticed one day that the Hostess shortcake pans were hardly being used during the short strawberry season. Instead of having the pans sit idly in the dust of the factory, Mr. Dewar began to inject smooth banana and vanilla creme filling into the cakes. These non-strawberry filled treats would later be named, "Twinkies." And this beloved snack would later contribute to the increased size of America's belly.

Today, the bankruptcy court judge presiding over the Hostess proceeding approved the winding down and liquidation of the company. The management at Hostess quickly placed blame, even before the judge made a decision. It was those greedy unions and their ridiculous demands for decent wages.

It is true that the union strikes made it difficult for the company to reorganize under Chapter 11, but the death of Hostess was long ago determined because of a number of non-union factors.

Hostess had already filed bankruptcy in 2004 and 2009, employed seven different CEOs in ten years, before private equity began to load the company with debt. Hostess had over $600 million of debt on the books before the unions were able to write on their picket signs. The total amount of debt was two-thirds of the complete asset value of Hostess.

Add the problems of consumer trends favoring healthier snacks, management's refusal to adapt to the market rate of labor, and leadership's failure to retool the business model; and you get the demise of a bakery company that has been around for over 70 years.

It is always easy to blame the workers, the unions, the blue-collar employees who are content in being a small part of the larger process in making a delectable product. But in blaming them, the Hostess executives associate themselves with the "severe" conservative agenda which holds working people in contempt.

The Republican House Majority leader Eric Cantor is a perfect example of an individual who disdains the working class. He issued a statement on Labor day 2012 stating, "we celebrate those who...built a business and earned their own success." I have nothing against business owners, but praising just them on labor day shows great disrespect to the labor class.

There is a wide-held belief that businesses would do better without unions. Let's examine whether this belief is backed by evidence.

Since 1970, union membership has gone from 1/3 of the workforce to less than 14 percent. What is the result of this decline? The top one percent of incomes increased 275% while middle class incomes went up just under 40%. This income inequality has had an effect on the whole economy. Because of the weak purchasing power of consumers, overall aggregate demand declined tremendously. If families cannot afford to purchase Twinkies, how is Hostess or an equivalent company supposed to sell its products?

Companies need to stop playing the blame game and realize that if the middle class does well, so does the whole country.

I am sure that James Dewar, once a delivery boy for a pastries company, would be disgusted with the turn of events regarding the Hostess bankruptcy. He could not have anticipated that the bakers would be the "ones responsible" for the end of Hostess. Although the Twinkies brand will live on, the respect for the people who made the Twinkies, Hostess bakers, will be discarded. Someone give me a sugary treat.