Twinkies are coming back—but under a new management that vows to use nonunion workers.
Five months after Hostess shut down over a standoff with its unions, the restructured company expects to put its snacks back on store shelves by summer. The Hostess closing left 18,000 people out of work across the country—about 5,000 of whom were union members. Hiring in remodeled plants is underway.
With Hostess back in business, labor analysts say the union movement may have taken a major hit just as it appeared to be regaining energy as workers went on strike.
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"The Hostess strike will be a lasting image and not for the good of unions," said Marc Bloch, a labor and employment lawyer at Walter & Haverfield in Cleveland, Ohio.
"I think any management team will hold up a photo to its workers of Hostess strikers and say, 'What's a union going to do for you?''' Bloch said. "The case can be made that they did nothing."
The Teamsters said it had no comment, and calls to the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union were not immediately returned Friday.
Christopher Rhomberg, a Fordham University sociology professor, said the strike went beyond wages and benefits.
"The workers had good reason to doubt management's intentions and reorganization plan," Rhomberg said. "The company had gone through bankruptcy twice in the last eight years and a revolving-door of management teams that increased the firm's debt but failed to reinvest in production or new products."
For the union workers who were left without a job, the Hostess shutdown showed the weakness of unions, said Daniel Opler, a history professor at College of Mount Saint Vincent and a labor relations specialist.
"There's no question the bakers union that rejected a settlement made a tactical error here," he said.
"But Hostess kept asking for concessions in exchange to keep the plants open and either workers gave away all their power to control wages or the plants closed," Opler said. "It was a no-win situation. I'm not sure this was a case of the union overplaying its hand or not having a hand to play."
About 14.3 million U.S. workers belong to unions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or 11.3 percent of the total workforce -- the lowest rate in 70 years. Union workers reached peak rates of 35 percent during the mid-1950s, after a surge in unionization during the Great Depression that lasted until after World War II.
Most union workers are public sector employees. Just 7 percent of private sector workers—like those from Hostess—belong to unions, according to the BLS.
Low membership rates could indicate that unions are weakening, said John Alan James, a business management consultant and staff member at Pace University.
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"Unions have been very good in the past making sure we have benefits like maternity leave, but their leadership continues to think only of themselves and not their members," James said.
"Employees are left to ask themselves, ‘Why should I pay dues when I don't see any positive results?’" he said.
"The business world is too fast today, and businesses need to make fast decisions and can't wait for unions to make up their minds," said Bloch. "Unions have to convince their membership that a deal is good or not, and that takes too much time these days."
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If it does take time, some workers seem willing 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. Retailers Sears and Macy's as well as Victoria's Secret have had their workers do the same.
Fast food and retail workers bring more than $4 billion a year into Chicago cash registers. But most of these workers earn the Illinois minimum wage of $8.25, or just above it. They say they are forced to rely on public assistance programs to provide for their families and get health care for their children. They're asking for $15 per hour and the right to form a union to support their families and put money back into the economy.
But workers taking to the streets doesn't mean the labor movement will see sunnier skies, Opler said.
"I've argued that unless things change dramatically, the labor movement is in serious trouble of becoming obsolete," Opler said. "Unions have lost their power to prevent lower wages and the increase in working hours."
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"But I would likely have been making that claim in 1929 and 1930 as the labor movement was one the eve of a historical period of growth," he said.
As for Hostess, it will start hiring this weekend at the Dolly Madison Bakery in Columbus, Ga., one of the locations shut down when the old company closed.
Hostess executive vice president Michael Cramer told NBC on Thursday that, "We are not going to invite the unions in. We don't have to." Cramer added that nothing prevents workers from unionizing at some point.
Bloch, the Ohio labor lawyer, said Hostess may not be able to keep the union out.
"They would be inviting trouble if they tried to screen potential workers about their feeling on unions," he said.
"There are employee laws to protect anyone from discrimination about unions. They can't ask if someone is pro-union or not," Bloch said. "Who knows? Unions could end up back in Hostess and the whole thing might happen again."