With a week to go before Hostess’ bakery union is expected to launch a crippling strike, the bankrupt company is scrambling to get the union back to the bargaining table.
Recently, Hostess has been reaching out to the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers union after going months without speaking. But the union’s president, Frank Hurt, has been “totally unresponsive,” said a source close to the situation.
The union did not return calls. A Hostess spokesman said CEO Greg Rayburn “has no plans to meet with Frank Hurt.”
If bakery workers strike for an extended period, the maker of Twinkies may be forced to liquidate.
Hostess, which earlier this month won the right to force a new contract on its 6,000 bakery workers, on Monday started imposing 8 percent pay cuts on about one-third of those workers. The strategy seems aimed at keeping bakers at all 36 bakeries from striking at once.