Hostess Brands Inc. said that it used wages that were supposed to help fund employee pensions for the company's operations as it sank toward bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. It isn't clear how many of the Irving, Texas, company's workers were affected by the move or how much money never wound up in their pension plans as promised. After the company said in August 2011 that it would stop making pension contributions, the foregone wages weren't put toward the pension fund. Nor were they restored. The maker of Twinkies, Ho-Hos and Wonder Bread filed for bankruptcy protection in January and shut down last month following a strike by one of the unions representing Hostess workers. A judge is overseeing the sale of company assets. Hostess hasn't previously acknowledged that the foregone wages went toward its operations. The maneuver probably doesn't violate federal law because the money Hostess failed to put into the pension fund didn't come directly from employees, experts said. The decision to cease pension contributions angered many employees. After the bankruptcy filing, Hostess tangled with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers International Union to renegotiate labor contracts. Halted pension contributions were a major factor in the bakers union's refusal to make a deal with the company. After a U.S. bankruptcy judge granted Hostess's request to impose a new contract, the union's employees went on strike. Hostess then moved to liquidate the company.
