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Eastman Kodak Co. reached a deal to turn over the camera-film business that helped make it a blue-chip company and other enterprises to U.K. retirees in exchange for wiping out pension obligations, in a deal that sets the stage for the onetime photography icon to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings later this year, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Under the deal, Kodak will hand over to the U.K. Kodak Pension Plan, its largest creditor, its "personalized imaging" and "document imaging" businesses, the company said today. The pensioners will then be able to either run the businesses or sell them as they see fit. Kodak will no longer owe the pensioners $2.8 billion, a large sum that threatened to complicate the Rochester, N.Y.-based company's efforts to reorganize.

Patriot Coal Corp. today will seek court permission to slash health care and pension benefits for about 13,000 union workers, an issue that has set off weeks of street protests by affected workers, Reuters reported today. The company, which declared bankruptcy last year, said that it wants to save $150 million a year on its labor obligations to help it regain profitability. But the United Mine Workers of America, the nation's biggest coal miners' union, says the cuts are unfair and plans to protest outside the bankruptcy court hearing today.

The company that bought the Twinkie, HoHo and Ding Dong brands out of bankruptcy is gearing up to reopen plants and hire workers but said that it will not be involved with union labor, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Hostess Brands LLC—Metropoulos & Co. and Apollo Global Management LLC 's new incarnation of the baking company that liquidated in chapter 11—is reopening four bakeries in the next eight to 10 weeks, aiming to get Twinkie-deprived consumers the classic snack cake by mid-July.

Patriot Coal Corp., the bankrupt mining company, reached a settlement resolving how it will reduce benefits for nonunion retirees, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Patriot will pay $4 million into a plan administered by a trustee to pay benefits for nonunion workers, Brian Resnick, a lawyer for Patriot, said in court yesterday. The payment would consist of $250,000 in cash plus stock in a reorganized company, he said. Life insurance will be capped at $30,000 and current benefits will stay in effect until July 31 under the settlement.

Atlantic City's newest casino is turning to layoffs to help it deal with financial problems as it works its way through bankruptcy court, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Revel Casino laid off 83 workers yesterday, representing about 2.5 percent of the casino's workforce. The $2.4 billion resort opened a year ago, but has languished near the bottom of Atlantic City's 12 casinos in terms of the amount of money won from gamblers. Revel filed for chapter 11 protection last month in a deal worked out in advance with its lenders. It hopes to emerge from bankruptcy court by early summer with a deal that will wipe out 82 percent of its $1.5 billion debt by converting most of it into equity for lenders.

Patriot Coal Corp.'s plan to withdraw from a multi-employer pension plan might cost it $959 million and harm retired miners and other companies, two contributors to the plan said, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Energy West Mining Co. and Drummond Co. objected in court papers filed on Thursday to Patriot's proposal to stop contributing to the United Mine Workers of America 1974 Pension Plan. The 35 other contributing companies would have to absorb the costs, and the underfunded plan covering 90,000 retirees and spouses might fail, they said.

Patriot Coal Corp., the bankrupt mining company facing protests as it seeks to cut benefits to union workers, revised its proposal and offered them an equity stake in a reorganized company, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Under the new proposal submitted to the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) on Wednesday, the UMWA would get a 35 percent stake in a reorganized company. The company’s initial proposal was made in November, and the latest proposal had been to give the UMWA an unsecured claim in the bankruptcy. Patriot filed for bankruptcy in July, citing falling demand for coal and obligations to pay $1.6 billion in lifetime health care for its 8,100 retirees. Patriot is seeking to trim costs by negotiating with unionized employees, and the St. Louis-based company said that it needs to shed at least $150 million more in labor expenses to avoid liquidating in bankruptcy, an outcome it says would be worse for retirees, employees and creditors.

Fisker Automotive, the struggling government-backed hybrid sports car maker, on Friday terminated most of its rank-and-file employees in what sources said was a last-ditch effort to conserve cash and stave off a potential bankruptcy filing, Reuters reported on Friday. Fisker, which raised $1.2 billion from investors and tapped nearly $200 million in government loans, has nearly $30 million in cash on hand. Fisker confirmed in a statement that it let go about 75 percent of its workforce but did not specify the number of workers affected. It called the move "a necessary strategic step in our efforts to maximize the value of Fisker's core assets."

Patriot Coal Corp., the bankrupt mining company beset by protests as it seeks to cut benefits to its unionized workers, also seeks to reduce or end benefits for nonunion retirees, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The coal producer on Tuesday asked a bankruptcy court for permission to cap life insurance benefits for nonunion retirees at $30,000 and end coverage for current nonunion employees. Patriot also asked in court papers to halt medical benefits for nonunion retirees.

Detroit's new state-appointed emergency manager yesterday disavowed letters sent by the mayor's office saying that the city would stop honoring contracts with its police, fire and paramedics' labor unions, Reuters reported today. The apparent miscommunication between Mayor Dave Bing and Kevyn Orr, the former bankruptcy lawyer brought in to clean up Detroit's finances, highlights the challenges Orr may face as he assumes increasing power in the biggest state takeover of an American city in more than two decades. Written to Michigan's five commissioners of employment relations, the letters declared that as of March 28, the destitute city considered itself in receivership status and no longer bound by its union contracts. March 28 is the date when a Michigan law went into effect giving the emergency manager wide powers, including the authority to abrogate union contracts. Orr's office said that the emergency manager had no warning that the letters would be sent.