Hostess Brands Inc., the maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and other snacks and breads, said Wednesday afternoon it will file a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Friday to liquidate the company if enough striking employees do not return to work by 5 p.m. today.
The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union began striking Friday. The union is striking at 24 of the company’s 36 plants, including a 128-job bakery in North Jacksonville.
Hostess said Monday it would permanently close three plants, in St. Louis, Cincinnati and Seattle, which employ 627 people.
“We simply do not have the financial resources to survive an ongoing national strike,” Hostess Brands Chairman and CEO Gregory Rayburn said in a news release on hostessstrike.info.
“Therefore, if sufficient employees do not return to work by 5 p.m., EST, on Thursday to restore normal operations, we will be forced to immediately move to liquidate the entire company, which will result in the loss of nearly 18,000 jobs,” he said.
“It is now up to Hostess’ BCTGM represented employees and Frank Hurt, their international president, to decide if they want to call off the strike and save this company, or cause massive financial harm to thousands of employees and their families,” he said.
No response was posted this morning on the union’s website, BCTGM.org.
CNNMoney.com reported the union did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday, but has called the concessions demanded in the new contract “outrageous.”
CNNMoney.com said the bakers’ union represents around 5,000 Hostess employees.
Hostess, which filed for bankruptcy reorganization in January, won wage and benefit concessions from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, but the bakers rejected the deal and the company asked the court to impose it on the union.
It is the second Chapter 11 filing by Hostess, emerging from the first in 2009.
Hostess said Wednesday it will file a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Friday requesting to wind down the company and sell all of its assets. It requested a hearing on the motion for Monday and said if the motion is granted, it will begin to close all of its operations as early as Tuesday.
It said the closures will include the termination of all employees, except small, temporary crews to clean, secure and prepare facilities and other assets for sale.
The company filed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications across the country in May that layoffs were possible. Hostess Brands issued a statement at the time that it mailed conditional WARN notices to all 18,500 employees around the country that a sale or wind down of the company was possible in the future during the restructuring under Chapter 11.
The Florida WARN filing indicated that Hostess might lay off 340 statewide employees, including 185 in Northeast Florida at eight bakery outlets and at the North Florida manufacturing plant. The notices listed the layoff dates as July 7-21, but no layoffs took place.
“However, our goal is still to emerge from bankruptcy as a growing company and there are no immediate actions being taken to sell or wind down the company. We are simply fulfilling our requirements by sending these notices,” said a company statement at that time.
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