The American Spectator

If you have ever thought about making a deep-fried Twinkie (quite delicious with whipped cream, ice cream, and chocolate sauce, I can testify), you’d better go stock up on the Twinkies right now, if you can even still find them. And what’s the downside? After all, are they not supposed to be indestructible, with the urban rumor of an indefinite shelf life?

The union which represents bakers who work at Hostess seem to have played a very aggressive, very stupid game of chicken, not agreeing to a modified contract which the company’s other unions had agreed to.

The end result is that the roughly 3000 bakers union members at Hostess have forced the company into liquidation, costing about 18,500 people their jobs. To be sure, the damage was caused more by the union leaders than by the union members, with the union leaders pressuring members to vote against the contract and only allowing a public voice vote, not a secret ballot. Just another example, on a micro scale, of people getting the government (or at least the representation) they deserve.

The union is arguing that the company’s financial structure (in which there was a lot of leverage) is the cause, and that the workers had given up enough when the company came out of bankruptcy the last time. Showing you how insane union leaders are, a spokeswoman said on CNBC “we should be applauding these workers for standing up for their right to stay in the middle class.”

There are lots of examples of despicable, self-destructive labor unions, but this one (if you will pardon the pun) takes the cake.

Perhaps they thought they were the UAW and that Obama would bail them out. But with Michelle Obama’s hatred for anything unhealthy, the right response would probably be “fat chance.”

I’m going to pick up my kids at school now and see if there are any Twinkies or Ding Dongs left in the local supermarket.

Hostess will sell the brands, so you will probably see these products again in coming months or years, but that’s cold comfort for the 18,500 Hostess employees who have lost their jobs today thanks to the greedy obstinacy of the bakers union.