HispanicBusiness

Losing a job just 10 days before Thanksgiving was a hard blow for Rick Marzuco and his family. But what's been even more frustrating? The truck driver blames his former employer, Hostess Brands, for undermining his job search.

Before hiring a commercial truck driver like Marzuco, a company needs to obtain and review drug and alcohol test records from the former employer. That's required under federal law.

Since he was laid off, Marzuco has applied for 10 jobs that require a commercial drivers license and landed three interviews. Marzuco, 54, has been told by prospective employers that Hostess, his employer for a dozen years, hasn't promptly responded to requests for his records.

"I had a job offer seven days after Hostess closed, and they had to fill the position with someone else," said Marzuco, who lives in Granite City. "I have a perfect driving record and never failed a drug screen, and I haven't been able to get a job because they're not returning background checks."

Other laid-off Hostess drivers reported the same difficulty, although a Hostess spokesman says the company is complying with the law and that he knew of no such problems.

The weeks following the closure of Hostess' plants and retail stores have been a struggle for the employees who worked at the maker of snack cakes and bread, often for decades.

Many have had trouble finding jobs in a local labor market that still is in the doldrums. And the problems are compounded by Hostess' own bankruptcy.

Jeff Merlenbach, 47, a former Hostess truck driver who lives in Red Bud, Ill., said he has called the company's human resources phone number multiple times in recent weeks about $3,000 in vacation pay he says he is owed. But he doesn't think he'll ever see the money.

"They owed it to us and they refuse to pay us," Merlenbach said.

The company has said it can't pay workers for unused vacation time or severance because those funds weren't approved by lenders as part of its wind-down plan.

Thousands of bakery workers, cashiers and truck drivers were suddenly out of work when Hostess announced in November that a weeklong strike by bakers had forced the maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread to close all 36 of its plants and 570 bakery outlet stores across the country.

The closure affected more than 18,000 workers, including 960 employees in Missouri and 1,372 in Illinois, according to the company.

Hostess' shutdown meant the immediate loss of 365 jobs at the St. Louis bakery, 195 at the Peoria, Ill., bakery and 85 at the Boonville, Mo., bakery, as well as an unspecified number of employees at dozens of local depots and bakery stores.

Hostess, which continues to staff its corporate headquarters in Irving, Texas, while the company winds down, disputes claims that there are processing delays for driver records.

"Since we began the wind-down, all drug and alcohol screening verifications have been responded to within the 30-day (Department of Transportation) requirement," Hostess spokesman Erik Halvorson wrote in an email.

The company's current turnaround time for processing verifications is one to two business days, he continued, adding that he wasn't aware of any problems with delays.

Breaking up Hostess

Hostess, which filed for bankruptcy a year ago, has been talking to former rivals and customers interested in buying its business.