The maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread heads to court Tuesday to try to throw out its union contracts, in a battle that leaves the iconic baker's future very much in doubt.

Hostess Brands, which makes Ding Dongs and a variety of other sweet treats, is asking the bankruptcy court in White Plains, N.Y. to tear up labor agreements, which would, among other things, allow Hostess to change how it funds union pensions. The hearing is expected to last two days.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, together represent more than three-quarters of the 18,500 workers at the company.

The Teamsters have vowed to strike if the judge agrees with management's request and dumps the labor deals.

But both management and the unions agree that the company is unlikely to survive a strike.

"We would no longer have cash to keep operating," said Hostess management in a letter sent to employees on Monday. "All Hostess Brands operations would shut down and liquidation would begin. The 18,500 jobs, plus the health insurance that comes with them, would be lost for good."

The company filed for bankruptcy in January, it's second trip to bankruptcy court since 2004. And management has said that the investors who are financing the company during bankruptcy would pull out if there is a strike.

Hostess was founded as Interstate Bakeries in 1930, although some of its best-known products go back much farther than that. Wonder Bread is 90 years old and Drake's cakes have been produced since 1888. The company was renamed Hostess Brands as it emerged from bankruptcy in 2009.

At the time of its January bankruptcy filing, Hostess said it pays about $63.2 million to its employees per pay period and owes more than $1 billion to more than 50,000 creditors. The bakers' union pension fund was the biggest creditor, owed $994 million, according to the filing.

We'd hate to get rid of our favorite myspace member's staple food scource.

Hard to speculate on its demise.

Competition, or unions.

Covers knows.

Are Twinkies too big to fail?

The twinkie maker's pensions are killing company. Time to bring in the scabs or relocate to a 'Right to work' state.

Except for like this there is no doubt. Unions chokehold may be fatal. Unless perhaps you could find blame elswehere. Doubt it.

Aren't these twinkies made by machines anyway, for the most part?

Hostess should diversify and go into green energy say like solar panels.

I am sure Obama would give them a 1/2 billion or so of our $$.

I wonder what that outcome would look like.

Oh wait, didnt we already try that?

you have any data to back up the claim that junk food is a dying industry? Here are some insights for you to ponder.

https://www.symphonyiri.com/Portals/0/ArticlePdfs/SNAXPO2012_Executive-Summary.pdf

Also, there are fully automated systems that can mix, bake, package and crate their products. My guess is they probably do not need anywhere close to 18,500 workers to produce their products. Maybe they have not kept up with technology and do things the old fashoined way. Maybe they need to look at their business mode, invest in technology and sadly can a shitload of people to keep the company afloat.

Can they do that with the contracts that they currently have with the union? I dont know but I doubt it.

I am not a twinkies fan so if the union wants to strike that is their "right".

It just means 18,500 more unemployed people in the end.

Either way, like I said, they may not have kept up with the times which I would attribute to possibly bad management and its possible they couldnt fully automate due to union contract language and like the post office are sure to fail.

Oh wait, the post office just bleeds money and keeps right on trucking because its not a private company.

For those who dont think union pensions are severely hurting many private companies,goverment agencise, municipalities etc I seriously beg to differ.

Yes, the pensions were agreed upon back whenever but they cant be funded properly during a down economy and hence the snowball of debt begins and never ends.

According to the article's math. Roughly 6 million owed to 49,999 creditors and $994 million to the pensions.

What is 49,999 divided by 6 million?

Ya, right Wall....cant blame the 'workers' at all.

Wall please explain how it CANNOT be blammed on the union?

Um, ok.

Have you looked at Hostess earnings? Do you know about their bankruptcy? Stock selloff? Reorganizations?

Wall is exactly right about the product. I have no idea how much the union impacts a dying product. I suppose one could argue that refusal to accept lost earnings to equate with less wages could be problematic. I don't know.

But the product is dying first.

Ever seen peoples waistlines lately? The products are absolutely not dying.

Keep posting pictures of people from youtube to prove your point and I'll post articles and facts.

QUOTE Originally Posted by wallstreetcappers:

Keep posting pictures of people from youtube to prove your point and I'll post articles and facts.

Business Summary

Are Twinkies in decline? Hostess files for Chapter 11.

Twinkies, Wonder Bread, and other Hostess products should still reach consumers, the company says. Hostess blames labor costs, not declining Twinkies sales, for Chapter 11 filing.

Once again...your link not mine.

You posted they weren't dying. I posted that they are declining in sales, which all of the articles state.

Are you suggesting that sales increased?

Please post some statistics that show that sales increased.

As an aside, you do understand why a publically traded company in bankruptcy will never blame the product for a decline in profits, right?

Do you understand why that is?

The Wall Street Journal reporters said Twinkie sales were down some two percent in 2010, but the sales figures didn’t include Wal-Mart stores. Why not? Do they buy their own Twinkies or what? Hmm?