Debts beholden for ingredients like flour, sweeteners and cocoa pale in comparison to the exorbitant amounts owed to union health and pension funds. The top unsecured creditor on the list is the Bakery & Confectionery Union & Industry International Pension Fund, owed $944.16 million. In fact, 16 of the top 40 unsecured claims belong to union benefit funds.

Hostess operates in 48 states and has approximately 19,000 unionized employees, 7,500 of which are represented by the Teamsters Union. Furthering Hostesses problems surviving in the market, the Company has 372 separate labor agreements, while most of its competitors are not unionized.

This is not Hostess’s first time dealing with bankruptcy. In 2004, the company formerly known as Interstate Bakeries went bankrupt and re-emerged as Hostess Brands in 2009.

Clicking images will take you to RingosPictures.com’s full photo essay on the May 1 rally.

Look for the union label! (Photo credit: eggrole / Mark)

Organized labor in Northern California says it’s high time that they unite with the state’s growing medical marijuana industry. On Monday, cannabis operators in San Jose and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union hashed-out the details for their new partnership.

Angel Raich, founder and CEO of ARCH collective in Oakland, described her industry’s budding relationship with UFCW as “a meeting of the minds in a lot of ways.” Dispensary operators say that aligning themselves with one of the nation’s most powerful labor unions  brings “clout” to their industry.

UFCW Local 5 President Ron Lind told KGO-TV that the Silicon Valley Cannabis Coalition for Sensibility and Dignity was launched to help cannabis shops “build their power and legitimacy” through unionization. The Daily Caller reported in June 2010 that marijuana legalization in California would especially be a boon to UCFW membership:

By getting in on the ground floor, the UFCW has a chance to dominate in an industry where employees and employers alike are –as of this moment anyway– far less skeptical of organized labor than the long-unionized supermarket industry.

With medical marijuana sales expected to generate revenue of nearly $9 billion over the next 5 years, could it be that UCFW leaders are hoping for spillover benefits to their core industry?  UFCW employees will certainly be in a unique position to deal with any and every case of the munchies that comes their way.

From the CWA:

Click here to view the embedded video.

It goes with out saying, then, that no one  wants to see another strike in Hollywood, except perhaps the Teamsters. They may shut down Hollywood in the coming weeks:

“”If they’re  [the Teamsters] counting on the producers caving, that’s the wrong strategy,” a studio-side source said. “A strike is entirely possible.” The low-profile Teamsters Local 399 represents several thousand drivers who move everything from production equipment to star trailers and electrical generators. No drivers means no equipment, and no equipment means no film or TV production. The Teamsters also represent casting directors and others, and the negotiations also include craft workers such as electricians. A walkout would idle these key workers as well as drivers. A strike would be the third Hollywood work stoppage in less than three years, following a 100-day writers strike in 2007-08 and a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) stalemate in 2008-09 that led to a suspension of most movie production.

It would be the first Teamsters action since a series of strikes during the 1980s. Unless the producers hire replacement workers – a contingency they already are preparing for – production would grind to a halt.”