I say it was more of the unions shooting themselves in the foot. Look at the total employees, there are over 18,000 of them but only 5000 of them are in the union. Rather or not if people in the USA want to admit it or not, but they are pricing their service and work right out of a job. Too many people feel they are "entitled" to a raise year after year when in turn they are the first to bitch when the cost of something goes up. This strike came back to bite them in the a$$ just like the one did at ACF years back that sent that company spiraling into the bygones of companies past. Same deal with the aluminum plant in Ravenswood. Unions have their goods and their bad, but greed does too. For what the workers lose in a strike is seldom ever recovered by the employees before the grim reaper knocks on the door. Just go and read about all the workers that had worked there at Hostess for years and were a year or two away from retirement and now are out in the cold and were not for the strike to start with. My grandfather, father and uncles were all teamsters back in the day in the trucking business. My dad used to say that Jimmy Hoffa and his crews would rob the pensions blind and then teamster brothers would get pissed if you didn't contribute to his legal fund.
My grandfather used to have the clout to where he was in the sit downs with Hoffa and his crews in Youngstown Ohio when they claimed they were negotiating with the union locals. Some strikes are for money, better retirement, medical or different reason. This Hostess strike appears to be over pay.....Sometimes a company calls your bluff.....