IBC: fails to reach deal with unions

Kansas City / MO. (ibc) Interstate Bakeries Corporation (IBC) says that it has not been able to reach a mutually acceptable agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) on modifications to its collective bargaining agreements necessary to allow a more capable and cost-effective path-to-market, specific health and welfare concessions, and increased work rule flexibility.

IBC announced on September 28, that it reached an agreement with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, and that it believed the ratification process was under way.

IBC previously stated that if agreements with its two principal labor unions were not reached by September 30, it would seek interim Bankruptcy Court approval for a 30-day extension from existing exclusivity deadlines to allow sufficient time to formulate a plan to maximize the value of the bankruptcy estates, including a sale of the Company and / or its assets in its entirety or in a series of transactions. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for October 3.

Today, IBC says that until the hearing on October 3 it remains open to constructive discussions with the IBT. IBC also says that it is continuing discussions with prospective investors to secure the financial resources required to successfully emerge from bankruptcy and implement its business plan, but that all financing proposals the company has received to date require union alignment to IBC´s business plan.

If union and financing arrangements are not achieved by October 3, however, the Company will pursue Court approval of the extension and focus efforts on alternative plans to maximize the value of the bankruptcy estates.