Interesting to read elsewhere that the heart of the problem is the same as the US Postal service, the State of California, and California schools.

All have pensions that need a huge infusion of money.

Hostess Brands Shutdown Highlights Looming Pension Crisis
The biggest issue is that Hostess’ union pension funds are underfunded by $2 billion. Under its agreements with the unions, Hostess is required to contribute to multi-employer pension plans (MEPPs). MEPPs provide pension benefits to workers within a particular trade, regardless of what company they work for. The concept was that all companies employing workers in a particular trade would contribute to the trade pension fund so that workers would not lose their pension benefits if they changed employers.

Fortune writes, “Trouble with MEPPs is, if some employers go out of business, the remaining companies have to pick up the shortfall in funding benefits. When there are too few employers left standing, the fund is in trouble…A third of the 40 MEPPs to which Hostess contributes are among the most underfunded plans in the country.”

With Hostess gone, all of the remaining companies contributing to the MEPPs serving Hostess employees will now have to pick up the slack left by Hostess.