BIDDEFORD — On Friday at 5 p.m., the last loaves of bread and other baked goods were packaged for the week at the Hostess Brands bakery in Biddeford. With more than 300 Hostess Brands employees having walked off the job and now manning picket lines, it’s uncertain when, or if, the bakery ovens will go back on.

Union members are striking in opposition to a contract that the company imposed on its workers, and which the court upheld.

The contract, which the workers say they will not accept, calls for wage and benefit concessions.

Company officials warn a widespread strike could cause the company to liquidate.

Members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, who work at the Hostess bakery in Biddeford, were among the first of thousands of union members in the country to go on strike. As of Sunday afternoon, according to the BCTGM website, workers at 12 Hostess plants went on strike, with workers at more facilities honoring the strike.

On Saturday, union members in Biddeford were walking with picket signs in front of the company entrances on Precourt Street.

They were impeding but not stopping trucks that were going in and out of the bakery driveways as workers, many of whom are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, were picking up products to be delivered to local stores.

In January, Hostess filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, and company officials said that wage and benefit reductions in the new contracts were needed to keep the company afloat.

These new collective bargaining agreements were approved in September by the majority of members of the Teamsters Union.

However, 92 percent of BCTGM workers voted against the contract that calls for an 8 percent pay cut and a reduction of health benefits.

Last month, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge upheld Hostess’ motion to impose

the contract.

“There will be no renegotiation” of the contract, said Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn in an email Saturday.

BCTGM union representative John Jordan said workers would be willing to make concessions, as they did when the company last went into bankruptcy in 2004, finally emerging in 2009.

However, he said, the larger issue is that the company has stopped paying into the workers’ pension fund. The fund payments are deducted from workers’ wages, he said.

The company stopped paying into this fund, as it was contractually obligated to do, in July 2011, according to a statement issued by the union.

Not paying into the fund as the company is doing amounts to theft, said Jordan.

“They’re stealing from our paychecks,” said Joanne Howland, one of the strike captains who was out with her picket sign denouncing the contract on Saturday.

Hostess spokesman Tom Becker stated in an email that pension contributions were suspended because the company “could no longer afford to make the payments. The plans were simply not sustainable.”

He said the company will resume contributions to the multi-employer pension plans in January.

“A widespread strike will cause Hostess Brands to liquidate if we are unable to produce or deliver products,” according to a statement from the company issued Friday in response to the strike. “If that’s the case, the company will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,300 member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.”

Founded in 1930 and based in Irving, Texas, Hostess Brands has approximately 18,300 employees and operates 36 bakeries and 565 distribution centers throughout the United States.

The Biddeford Hostess plant produces Hostess CupCakes, Sno Balls, Suzy Qs and 100 Calorie Packs Nature’s Pride, Wonder Bread and regional products including Home Pride, JJ Nissan and Beefsteak.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.