Two investment firms have been chosen as the bidders to beat for the Hostess Brands snack cakes division that includes the iconic Twinkies and that is being auctioned off as part of the Hostess bankruptcy proceedings.   

The two firms are Metropoulos & Co. and Apollo Global Management LLC. Known as “stalking horse” bidders, other firms must beat their $410 million bid to acquire the division.

Mike Hummell says the men and women who made the iconic baked goods at Hostess Brands’ Lenexa, Kan., plant turned out quality products and “it was something everyone who worked there had a lot of pride in.”

That was until years of mismanagement coupled with unprecedented corporate greed bankrupted the company, stole the workers’ pensions and closed dozens of bakery plants’ doors in November. In this video, Hummell, a 14-year veteran of Hostess, and other members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 218, say they want to set the record straight.    

Berry Craig, recording secretary for the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council and a professor of history at West Kentucky Community and Technical College, is a former daily newspaper and Associated Press columnist and currently a member of AFT Local 1360. Craig sends us this.

Showing solidarity with our union brothers and sisters is a great way for us to ring in the New Year, says Jim Key, vice president at large of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 550 in Paducah, Ky. Key, also his local's legislative and political chairman, is asking union members and union supporters nationwide to take a minute to put their John Hancock on a White House cyber-petition against corporations that file for bankruptcy “to circumvent their liabilities for workers' pensions and post-retirement health care benefits.” (Click here to sign the petition.)

Workers took to the street yesterday as American Airlines’ bankruptcy hearings began in New York City. Members of the Transport Workers (TWU), which represents American Airlines’ mechanics and fleet service employees, rallied with other union and community activists to demand that the court protect American jobs and collective bargaining rights and respect the value of work during the bankruptcy proceedings. Take a look at TWU’s video.

In February, American Airlines announced plans to eliminate the jobs of 13,000 workers and dump pension plans for nearly 90,000 workers into the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) as part of its bankruptcy plan. Roughly 9,000 Transport Workers (TWU) members are employed at American. But yesterday, following negotiations with the TWU and PBGC, American announced it was abandoning its pension proposal.

Last week, American Airlines announced plans to eliminate the jobs of 13,000 workers and dump pension plans for nearly 90,000 workers as part of its bankruptcy plan.

Members of the Transport Workers (TWU), whose jobs are facing elimination by Bain & Co., will protest outside campaign offices of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the days leading up to the Florida primary election on Jan. 31. Calling Romney ”a job cremator, not a job creator,” TWU President James Little says Romney:

Hostess Brands, the company that has brought us such iconically American snacks as Twinkies, yesterday filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time since 2004. But the move does more than affect our universal sweet tooth—it has vast repercussions for some 5,000 workers, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM).