The first question I would ask is if ye are unionised? If yes, then your union would be very familier with TUPE legislation.
If your not, then I would suggest doing a google search on TUPE and becoming familier with it.
I would assume they would rehire you on inferior T&Cs but you would have to find out if they would be paying redundancy before rehiring?
Also, do you know how well (or badly) the company is doing? Maybe this is something they have to do in order to survive and if that is the case would they not be better off telling the staff how critical the situation is and asking for co-operation from the staff.
Either way, more info would be required if a better response is needed.