Why is hostess shutting down

Bimbo Bakeries, maker of the Arnold and Stroehmann brands, is the No. The company had given a 5 p. ET Thursday deadline for the bakers to return to work or face a shutdown of the company. Related: The history of labor battles at Hostess.

In September, membership of one of its major unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, voted narrowly to accept a new contract with reduced wages and benefits. The Bakers' union rejected the deal , however, prompting Hostess management to secure permission from a bankruptcy court to force a new concession contract on workers.

The Teamsters union, which represents 6, Hostess workers, issued a statement blaming mismanagement by Hostess executives for the company's problems. But it also was critical of the decision of Bakers' union, although it did not identify the union by name. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, C. Kaufman, a labor attorney in Los Angeles who is not affiliated with the case. While Metropoulos did not respond to interview requests from ABC News, he told the Journal that he does "not expect to be involved in the union going forward.

A spokesman for the Teamsters declined to comment. Perhaps to keep Walmart or other bakeries from reopening them and restore a hint of competition to the near monopolized wholesale baking biz. But otherwise, 5 years on, neither Hostess owners old and new nor the bankruptcy process have done squat for Hostess workers Thanks for reccing this up! Hostess Shutdown, 5 Years Later.

Community This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication. Please log in or sign up to continue. Recommend Unrecommend Add to Blog. That's the lowest rate in 70 years. The peak for union workers was a 35 percent rate during the mids, after a surge in unionization during the Great Depression through post-World War II. Most union workers are public sector employees, and only 7 percent are private sector workers—like those from Hostess—belonging to unions, according to the BLS.

The low membership reflect how irrelevant unions have become, said John Alan James, a business management consultant and staff member at Pace University.

If it does take time, some workers seem wiling to wait. Job actions and walkouts by fast-food workers in the last few months at McDonald's, Subway and Dunkin' Donuts in Chicago and New York have called for higher wages and the right to form a union without interference.