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The Utah Department of Workforce Services and Ogden/Weber Technology College will host a job fair Thursday for former Hostess employees.

The job fair will run from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. at the Ogden/Weber Technology College, 200 N. Washington Blvd. in Ogden.

Employers participating include Lofthouse, Kroeger, Kellogg's, FedEx, CSM Bakery and U.S. Food Services.

Job seekers are urged to bring an updated resúmé and to dress professionally for interviews.

A series of free resume/job search workshops will be presented by the Department of Workforce Services this week. For a list of dates and locations go to http://www.jobs.utah.gov.

Hostess Brands, the baker of Twinkies and Wonder bread, began terminating most of its 18,000 employees last week after winning court approval to shut down and start selling assets that could bring in $1 billion.

Hostess asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain for approval to shut down 36 bakeries, 242 depots, 216 retail stores, and 311 hybrid depot-store facilities, according to court filings. There are 58 other leased or owned sites used for storage, warehousing of products or parking. The plants are in 22 states, stretching from Alaska to New Jersey.

In Utah, Hostess employed about 600 people in operations at two bakeries, nearly a dozen retail stores and nine depots.

After Drain approved Hostess's request to close, CEO Gregory Rayburn said 15,000 workers would be fired as soon as possible so they could start receiving unemployment benefits. Hostess said it needed to liquidate because a prolonged strike by its bakers' union crippled operations, which the union denies.

The company, which said that about 3,200 employees will stay on temporarily to clean plants and mothball equipment, indicated that wind-down operations will take at least three months. Quick asset sales may preserve some jobs, and prospective buyers of the various brands could rehire some Hostess employees.

Rob Rogers, business agent Utah Local 401 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, said that about 30 former managers and hourly workers remain on the job at the company's Ogden and Salt Lake City bakeries.

Local 401 represented about half of the Hostess workers in Utah. "There has been some speculation that a number of buyers may be interested in Hostess' two Utah bakeries," he said. —

Job fair information

When • 1 p.m.-4 p.m. Thursday

Where • Ogden/Weber Technology College, 200 N. Washington Blvd.

Employers attending • Lofthouse, Kroeger, Kellogg's, FedEx, CSM Bakery and U.S. Food Services