A bankruptcy judge today urged Hostess Brands, maker of Twinkies snacks and Wonder Bread, to enter private mediation with its lenders and striking union, to which it agreed, Yahoo! Finance reported.
Hostess, its lenders and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union will meet behind closed doors. Bargaining will begin tomorrow and if an agreement is not reached, liquidation will move forward on Wednesday, thinkprogress.org reported.
The judge, Robert Drain of the Southern District of New York said his decision was prompted primarily by the potential loss of over 18,000 jobs and his belief that a possible solution existed.
The more than 80-year-old Hostess was seeking permission to liquidate the company, charging that it had been crippled by a bakers strike. Hostess was asking for approval to shut down the company and pay $1.8 million in executive bonuses.
Indeed, while Hostess was filing for bankruptcy for the second time earlier this year, it had in fact tripled its CEO’s pay and increased other executives’ compensation by as much as 80 percent.
