Unionized workers at bankrupt Hostess Brands will have an 8 percent pay cut imposed on them starting today, the company said in a letter mailed last week to its drivers, bakers and other employees.
The pay cuts at America’s largest bakery reflect the company’s latest pay package — which the Teamsters accepted but the Bakers Union rejected, only to see Hostess gain court approval to force it upon them.
In an apparent strategy move, Hostess is not seeking to implement the pay cut on all its 6,000 bakers at once, The Post has learned.
Instead, Hostess is rolling out the cuts to the roughly 30 independently-run union shops local-by-local over the next 40 days.
The strategy seems aimed at keeping bakers at all 36 bakeries across the country from striking at once — a move that would likely cripple the maker of Twinkies and Wonder bread.
Under their last collective bargaining contract, the Bakers Union can strike only if a new pay package is forced upon them.
“If the members strike [in some locals], that bakery will either be back-filled by replacement workers or shut down entirely,” a Hostess Teamsters worker told The Post in a recent interview. “Managers would be sent from other bakeries to bakeries that do strike.”
Hostess flatly denied replacement workers would be used. “Striking plants will be closed and will not be kept open with replacement workers,” a company spokesman said in statement. “The only remaining personnel will be a small team to close, clean and secure the facility.”
Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn, in his letter to employees receiving the pay cuts, laid out more bad news.
“If you participate in a Taft-Hartley health and welfare benefit plan, the company’s portion of the contribution will be reduced by 17 percent.”