http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000321/bs/bakery_strike_3.html

Union Furor Makes ***Twinkies Scarce***

By MARTIN FINUCANE, Associated Press Writer BOSTON (AP) - Charlie Bianchi works all day at a little snack bar in one of the busiest state office buildings, and he's seen up close the effects of the Great Twinkie Shortage of 2000. ``All day long, they're saying, `Where's my Twinkies? Where's my coffee cake? Where's my pound cake? Where's my Devil Dogs? Where's my Yodels? Where's my Ring Dings?''' Bianchi says. ``They're ready to kill. They look at me with doubt in their eyes. They think that I forgot to place the order. It's always the coffee slinger's fault.'' In fact, the fault lies with a labor dispute. A Teamsters strike has shut down bakeries and is causing scarcities along the East Coast from Maine to Washington of a variety of well-known products, including Wonder bread and Hostess brands such as Twinkies. As shelves empty across the region, the area will have to do without deliveries of about 2 million Twinkies and cupcakes per week and 400,000 loaves of Wonder bread, the company estimated. Rubens Breeden, a 28-year-old state worker, was one of many who couldn't get the light and fluffy concoctions he has loved since childhood. ``Bring back the Ring Dings and the Devil Dogs. We need them, hands-down,'' he said, leaving empty-handed. Otherwise, he said, ``I'll have to eat healthy food.'' The strike began a week ago when 1,400 Teamsters responsible for delivery and sales of products from Interstate Bakeries Co.'s only New England bakery, in Biddeford, Maine, walked off the job. The bakery, which employs 400 people, was shut down, and the strike quickly spread to other bakeries as Teamsters set up pickets elsewhere. As of Tuesday, five bakeries with 2,600 workers were shut down in Biddeford; New York City; Philadelphia; Wayne, N.J.; and Buffalo, N.Y., said Mark Dirkes, senior vice president for marketing in Kansas City, Mo. The union has accused the company of refusing to honor arbitration rulings. The company maintains it was shut out of the arbitration process, and it has asked a judge to clarify the process. One of the major sticking points has been the company's requirement that drivers deliver more than one brand of Interstate products at a time. The Teamsters say the practice violates work rules designed to protect drivers who get paid different amounts for each brand. Dirkes said the strike would affect the Northeast from Maine to Washington and the Buffalo area. Also affected will be two other brands known primarily in New England and New York: J.J. Nissen breads and Drake's Cakes. In Concord, N.H.., Pamela Anderson, a mother of two, picked up some of the last Twinkies at a gas station. ``I say they're for my kids, but they're really for me,'' she said. Lisa Towne, a dental hygienist in Concord, saw a bright side to the strike: ``The dental community might even benefit.'' In downtown Boston, shelves usually filled with Hostess products were bare or getting there quickly. At one convenience store, Bruce Whitmore, sales manager for Quinzani's Bakery in Boston, was making a pitch to fill the store's empty bread shelves.

"`We're getting a lot of extra business. The phone is ringing off the hook,'' he said. To Breeden, eating Twinkies and other snack cakes is just part of growing up American. ``It's like everything from baseball to watching the Celtics,'' he said. ``Basically, every little kid does it. It's like throwing rocks and playing in the mud.''  http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000321/bs/bakery_strike_3.html

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), March 21, 2000

Answers

I would have thought Twinkies were a controlled substance after Moscone was shot.

-- Sifting (through@the.rubble), March 21, 2000.

I have to admit that I've never eaten a Twinkie in my entire life. I love junk food, but I certainly prefer a higher class of junk than that. Ahh, popsicles, chocolate bars, Reese Peanut Butter Balls,.....

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), March 21, 2000.

Twinkies, Ding Dongs and HO-HOs. Manna from Hostess!

-- (dwelling@Beulah.Land), March 21, 2000.

You can add the canned Coke shortage to the Twinkie shortage. I stopped at one of those gas/food stores today. Not One Single Cold Coke Can in the joint! Cases were all full of the plastic bottles of Coke and everything else. I didn't WANT plastic. Counter Guy said Coke guy was supposed to deliver today. Never seen that before.

-- Bottles fall (outt@cup.holder), March 21, 2000.

Twinkies will fall out of the sky!!!!

-- Ding Dong (ding@dong.con), March 21, 2000.

I heard 'twinkies' NEVER go bad, stale perhaps, but the chemicals in them will last forever...

Is that true?

As for me, I like HO HO's......

Gilda, peanut butter balls??????? never heard of those, where they at?

LOL...

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), March 21, 2000.

CPR You better hope there isn't a twinkie shortage. If there is, this country could be in real serious danger, and not from getting nuked by some other country. Twinkies are one of the known and successful treatments for a serious ailment called "menopausal mad woman syndrome." Use your imagination. Just what do you think could happen if the middle aged women of America don't get their twinkies?

Without twinkies and chocolate, this world and country could become a very dangerous place..............

(Can't wait to see the flames and snickers on this one! But it won't bother me, I've got twinkies............)

-- suzy (suzy@nowhere.com), March 21, 2000.

Twinkies-Bakery??

As far as I know, these wonderful concoctions are never baked. The chemicals make the cake rise.

People still eat these things??

No wonder the cost of medical care is so high in this country.

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), March 21, 2000.

Suzy, what country are you from? Can't be the U.S. You may choose to malign our Country, if you are a a fragment of us, then let us cast you out. Because you stink.

-- Nana (for@llus.com), March 21, 2000.

Aw nana, have a twinkie and lighten up. Know what a "joke" is?

-- suzy (suzy@nowhere.com), March 22, 2000.

suzy, you're a joke.

-- (suzy@is a .twinky), March 22, 2000.

This is serious. Next there'll be a shortage of taco sauce to go on the Ding Dongs. Yow!

-- Zippy (Are we having@fun.yet?), March 22, 2000.

consumer, you can always find Reeses Peanut Butter Balls at Wal-Mart. But watch out; they're addictive. My mother was a great fan of Screaming Yellow Zonkers. Anybody like those?

Twinkies Suck!

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), March 22, 2000.

Noting that Twinkies have an extremely long shelf life, maybe if we were to eat more of them, we too, might experience greater longevity.

-- Lippy (lippy@hostess.mktdept), March 22, 2000.

Or, we can skip the embalming :o)

~*~

-- (Ladylogic@...), March 22, 2000.

When I was a little girl, my oldest brother was one of those delivery truck salesmen for Hostess. He brought the "unsold" stuff home. He also brought home the cardboard signs used for sales, etc. My younger brother and I used the blank side for "artwork."

Years later, my brother quit Hostess and decided to move to the south, start his own business and engage in a slower pace of life. I didn't understand why he would give up a job that paid him well, but learned a few years later from my cousin that Hostess had suddenly cut my brother's route in half one day...the route he'd spent YEARS developing. It seems Hostess told him that he'd done SUCH a good job developing THAT route they were sure he'd do as well building up the new route, and that another salesman would have the opportunity to build on the OTHER half. It just didn't seem fair to my brother. His "success" essentially cut his paycheck in half and put him right back where he started, only much older and with a family of five to support.

Hostess leaves a bad taste in the mouths of my family, for more reasons than chemicals.

-- Anita (notgiving@anymore.thingee), March 22, 2000.

Anita,

Unfortunately this type of thing is all too common in the business world especially with big, soul-less corporations. The bigger they are, the worse that they seem to be. I've been shafted by them more than a few times, too. I hope that your brother went on to bigger and better things. A good salesperson can pretty much write their own ticket and even gain a certain amount of independence within a company structure.

-- Flash (flash@flash.hq), March 22, 2000.

Laura,

Great observation, especially this early in the morning!

By the way, do you know where I can get some "Tanna Leaves"?

-- Flash (flash@flash.hq), March 22, 2000.

Suzy knows what's good. Besides calming down women suffering from raging hormones, Twinkies are delightful geek bait. There are countless articles written about why single women should consider a geek, but too few instructions on attracting them. Placing a large basket of Twinkies on one's desk at work is a good start!

-- (Ladybuckeye_59@yahoo.com), March 22, 2000.