(Memphis) The clock is ticking on your next Twinkie.
Hostess is threatening to liquidate if striking bakers don’t get back on the job.
The Teamsters Union has already made concessions with the company but the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union has not.
Hostess, a privately held company, filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, its second time in less than a decade.
Hostess closing means a host of problems for Memphis.
“I’ve got some bread, some Wonder Bread,” said Ester Humphrey, leaving the Hostess Outlet store. “I always buy my bread here.”
However, she wonders what’s going to happen to Hostess Brands as liquidation looms.
The company’s threatening to shut down operations across the country as its workers continue strike.
“I hope you know that they can work things out,” said Humphrey.
Hope is running out for Hostess and its employees.
It puts the bluff city in a bad spot.
The company pays more than $27,000 in taxes a year and more than 200 people work at the bakery on Madison.
All of that was in jeopardy if a deal wasn’t reached by 5:00pm Thursday.
So far there has been no word of a deal.
“This is a recession that we’re going through and sometimes we might have to take a cut,” said Humphrey. “I even cut back on me.”
Hostess already restructured the company after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but the company says it needs to make more cuts.
However, workers say they already gave back eight percent of their pay as part of the restructuring and don’t want to give up anymore.
That may mean giving up their job, something that’s already hard to come by in Memphis.
“The fact that I’m looking for a job myself, I think these people have got to be crazy to be on strike,” said Memphian, Gregory Allen. “I think they need to just go on back to work.”
Bakers Union representatives would not talk with News Channel 3 about the strike.
They were waiting to see what the company would do on Thursday.
