By Tom Hals
Oct 3 (Reuters) - The bankrupt maker of the Twinkies snack
cake, Hostess Brands Inc, received court permission on Wednesday
to impose a pay-cutting collective bargaining agreement on
thousands of workers in a bakery union, a company spokesman
said.
The company has argued that imposing the agreement, which
will cut wages by 8 percent and reduce benefits, was the only
way for Hostess to avoid liquidating its assets and going out of
business.
After the 6,500 members of the Bakery, Confectionary,
Tobacco and Grain Millers International Union rejected the pay
contract by a wide margin, Hostess asked Judge Robert Drain to
impose it as a way of saving the company.
Hostess has now secured cost-cutting deals with steelworkers
and its biggest union, the International Brotherhood of
Teamsters, which represents 7,000 of the company's 18,000
employees.
Hostess, which operates around 36 bakeries, filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection in January in Manhattan's bankruptcy
court.
The case is In re Hostess Brands et al, U.S. Bankruptcy
Court for the Southern District of New York, no. 12-22052.
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