With repercussions stretching from Easter baskets to blood sugar-testing facilities nationwide, workers at the Pennsylvania factory that manufacture Peeps are about to enter their second week of strikes. At issue is a contractual disagreement between Just Born Inc.—the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-makers of Peeps, Mike and Ike, and Hot Tamales—and union employees of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 6. Workers are protesting the company’s proposal for future hires to enroll in a 401(k) plan rather than the pension program offered to current employees.
About 400 employees went on strike last Wednesday, just as the company was ramping up orders for Easter 2017. As one package handler told The Morning Call, employees held out until now to strike “because it kind of hits them the hardest. They need us more than they think.”
What does this mean for Peeps, the baby animal-shaped marshmallow candies that children enjoy mutilating in microwaves? Halloween and Christmas 2016 orders have already been fulfilled. But if this strike becomes protracted, it might be time to stockpile for when our nation turns into a barren Peepocalyptic wasteland next Easter, and raggedy children start scrounging for and subsisting on, good God, fake basket grass.