(MCT) — PEORIA, Ill. — After strikers failed to accept a 4 p.m. deadline to return to work Thursday, Hostess Brands Inc. is expected to announce plans that could involve liquidation on Friday, a move that could affect a national work force of 18,000 people.

That leaves facilities such as the plant at 1511 W. Lincoln Ave. and its 200 employees in limbo. About 100 of those employees are members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union that have been on a national strike since Nov. 9, when Hostess imposed a contract that cut employee salaries by 8 percent.