Illinois a terrible hostess: Twinkies leave the state
Hostess Brands LLC announced on Aug. 20 that the Illinois bakery where Twinkies were first invented will close this fall. More than 400 workers will be affected by the shuttering of the company’s Schiller Park location in October. Sadly, this isn’t surprising. In 2012, Hostess closed three bakeries nationwide after a massive union strike, high...
Hostess Brands LLC announced on Aug. 20 that the Illinois bakery where Twinkies were first invented will close this fall. More than 400 workers will be affected by the shuttering of the company’s Schiller Park location in October.
Sadly, this isn’t surprising.
In 2012, Hostess closed three bakeries nationwide after a massive union strike, high labor costs and increased competition turned up the heat on the baked-goods company. It’s hard to believe that some variation of these factors didn’t cause Hostess to sever its ties with Illinois. About 280 of the company’s workers in Schiller Park voted to unionize in May.
Union leaders at the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, who were caught off guard by the closure, would have been wise to remember their follies in 2012. They must have thought Hostess was bluffing when they balked at contract negotiations.
But Hostess wasn’t bluffing, and now hundreds of workers have lost their jobs.
It didn’t help that the state has been handing out millions in tax breaks and free cash to other confectionaries, while saddling companies such as Jelly Belly and Hostess with the fourth-highest workers’ compensation rates in the nation and the fourth-highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. When Illinois government picked winners, these two companies packed up and shipped out.
There’s a reason why the Twinkie bakery in Indiana is still open for business.
As it turns out, the Chicago Tribune reported that some of the Schiller Park workers may be able to get jobs at the Hoosier State facility.
Snack and candy businesses that make money on small margins often can’t afford to play politics. Perhaps if they had been making colorful candies instead of cream-filled cakes, Hostess could have gotten a piece of the action.