If Hostess Liquidates, Will Twinkies Solidify?
Perhaps you have been following this story. Hostess Bakeries, makers of the iconic products Twinkies, snoballs, and CupCakes (pictured above from my personal collection) has already closed three bakeries and is planning to liquidate the company if the bakers' strike continues through tomorrow, Thursday. Here is the union position:
"Our members are on strike because they have had enough," bakers' union president Frank Hurt said in a statement Tuesday. "They are not willing to take draconian wage and benefit cuts on top of the significant concessions they made in 2004 and give up their pension so that the Wall Street vulture capitalists in control of this company can walk away with millions of dollars."
And here, from the company:
"We simply do not have the financial resources to survive an ongoing national strike," Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn said in a statement.
The CNN article continues: "The liquidation would result in Hostess' nearly 18,000 workers losing their jobs. The bakers' union represents around 5,000."
Unlike issues such as war, taxes, and immigration, in which we citizens can make our collective wishes known at the polling place, this would seem to be a dispute in the finest company/union tradition. Money-grubbing capitalists against greedy union bosses with 18,000 jobs in the balance, and no PAC or opportunity to vote to Save Our Twinkies.
I have laid in a modest emergency supply with the following plan: If the company survives, I shall be assured of future opportunities to acquire more of their baked goods, and celebrate by confirming that the pictured pre-deadline confections are similar to those created post-deadline. If it doesn't, or if a long period passes before the products are resurrected from their parent's bankruptcy, I shall periodically glance at them longingly, and on occasion give them a gentle squeeze to confirm their legend of immortality, if not continuity.
I Voted
Despite my arguably jaundiced opinion about voting, I did so this year. Unfortunately the process of voting doesn't automatically grant one the government (or lack thereof) one wants. In fact, it often doesn't put his favored candidates in office, either. There is one inarguable benefit of having voted, however. Here it is:
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Yes, it's my very own "I Voted" sticker. I asked if
I could have a second one if I went back and voted
again. "No!" I was told by a "poll watcher" who
sounded very serious. I put the sticker right underneath the space bar. |
