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Hostess Saves Twinkies By Automating, Fires 94% Of Their Workforce (washingtonpost.com)
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes:
Where Twinkie once employed 22,000 workers in more than 40 bakeries, their workforce is now down to just 1,170, reports the Washington Post, relying mostly on robotic arms and other forms of automation. "This 500-person plant produces more than 1 million Twinkies a day, 400 million a year. That's 80% of Hostess' total output -- output that under the old regime required 14 plants and 9,000 employees."
"We like to think of ourselves as a billion-dollar startup," Hostess chief executive Bill Toler said Tuesday, announcing that Hostess Brands, which had twice filed for bankruptcy, now plans to become a publicly-listed company valued at $2.3 billion.
"We like to think of ourselves as a billion-dollar startup," Hostess chief executive Bill Toler said Tuesday, announcing that Hostess Brands, which had twice filed for bankruptcy, now plans to become a publicly-listed company valued at $2.3 billion.
What's passed along is the cost of supporting the thousands of unemployed.
Thanks for the info, i will now boycott all hostess products. Twinkies suck anyways lol haven't eaten one in 20 years.
Jack of all trades,master of none
Support? Those workers will be turned out to starve.
Unfortunately, this fascist shithole of a country doesn't care about the poor. The republicans love to slash the safety net right after passing another tax break for the rich. Then they wonder why the economy doesn't rebound and government revenues are down.
who "took all the Murican jobs!1!!", but it's clearly the CEO ànd board of Hostess. Maybe we should build a wall around them, and make them pay for it... ?
Steve -- If you have to call it a system, you don't know what it is.
So who is to blame here? Management should have been thrown into the fire instead. They're the ones who ran the company into the ground, not the people who did the actual work every day.
The people that ran the company into the ground were .. the people who did the actual work every day. Or, more precisely, the union that represented them.
I don't get this attitude that Unions destroy everything
You have never worked with a union or their members. It's not fun. And it does drive up the costs.
Hostess Brands ceased being "owned pretty much entirely by democrats" in 1925, you stupid sonofabitch.
You are welcome on my lawn.
If they can fire 94% of their workforce without impacting their production, that means their Union was being very evil and insisting paying people do not work. Not 20%, not 50%, not 80%, but 94%. The Union was despicable.
The new business owners are doing a good job if they can cut their workforce by 94% and still keep their production up.
People are entitled to good paying, safe jobs, not to "make work."
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