AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued the following statement concerning Hostess Brands' announcement that it will liquidate its holdings and cease operations, costing 18,000 workers their jobs.

What’s happening with Hostess Brands is a microcosm of what’s wrong with America, as Bain-style Wall Street vultures make themselves rich by making America poor. Crony capitalism and consistently poor management drove Hostess into the ground, but its workers are paying the price. These workers, who consistently make great products Americans love and have offered multiple concessions, want their company to succeed. They have bravely taken a stand against the corporate race-to-the-bottom. And now they and their communities are suffering the tragedy of a needless layoff. This is wrong. It has to stop. It’s wrecking America.

This is a cross-post from the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM).  

In a desperate attempt to break the solidarity and resolve of striking BCTGM members across the country, Hostess Brands is falsely claiming that its decision to close three of its bakeries—St. Louis, Cincinnati and Seattle—is the result of the nationwide strike against the company by BCTGM members.

In fact, according to the company’s 1113 filing with the bankruptcy court earlier this year, as well as its last/best/final and non-negotiable proposal to its BCTGM-represented workers, the company was planning to close at least nine bakeries as part of its reorganization plan, although the company refused to disclose which bakeries it intended to close.

Workers at Hostess Brands—who in September overwhelming rejected a contract that cut wages and benefits by as much as 32%—began a strike today against the maker of Wonder Bread, Twinkies and other well-known baked treats. Hostess has imposed the terms of the rejected contract. Frank Hurt, president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) says:

Hostess Brands is making a mockery of the labor relations system that has been in place for nearly 100 years.