Hostess to dissolve if strike continues
Hostess Brands executives plan to liquidate the bankrupt 18,000-employee company by Friday if striking workers — including over 300 at a Biddeford plant — don't return to work.
The Journal Tribune reported that production continues at the Biddeford bakery where about 20 workers have crossed the picket line and are running two 10-hour shifts daily.
The strike began Friday in Biddeford where the paper reported over 300 workers were the second local unit of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union to go on strike in the country.
At issue for the company, which filed for bankruptcy in January, is a new contract that cuts pay by 8% and reduces benefits and the company's stoppage of payments into employee pension funds.
The paper reported Wednesday that two striking workers have been arrested.
Jerry Leighton, 55, of Biddeford was arrested and charged with a Class D felony for carrying a concealed weapon. Biddeford Police told the paper that despite Leighton having a permit for the weapon, it is illegal for a person to carry a dangerous weapon at a labor dispute or strike. He faces up a minimum sentence of one year in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 the paper reported.
Another man, 53-year-old Jean Claude Gauttier was arrested and charged with criminal threatening after allegedly wielding a large pipe at police.
The company has already announced that three bakeries — in Seattle, St. Louis and Cincinnati — will close permanently because of the strike, but union officials argue those closures had been planned earlier.
The company that was founded in 1930, based in Irving, Texas, produces baked goods including Twinkies, SnoBalls, Suzy Qs and Wonder Bread.
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