Records of complaints in the furniture sector (freepik photo, pexels)
A major American furniture company fired all 2,700 of its workers this week while they were sleeping, sending them text messages and emails not to come to work the next day, according to reports in the US.
Yesterday’s mass layoffs by sofa and armchair maker United Furniture Industries (UFI) left thousands of workers — including truck drivers and factory workers in North Carolina, Mississippi and California — out of a job just two days before Thanksgiving.
“By order of the board of directors… we regret to inform you that due to unforeseen business circumstances, the company had to make the difficult decision to terminate the employment of all its employees, effective immediately, on November 21.” the company said in messages to employees.
More in-
“Except for drivers on the road making deliveries. Your dismissal from the company is expected to be permanent and all benefits will be terminated immediately.” Written. In addition, drivers were told they would be paid for the remainder of the week and that they must “immediately return equipment, inventory and shipping documents,” according to the memo.
It’s unclear why the 20-year-old company ceased operations so suddenly, but over the summer it fired its CEO, CFO and senior vice president of sales, according to FurnitureToday.com. A few weeks later, about 500 workers lost their jobs at multiple facilities in North Carolina and California.
On Tuesday, workers were later told they could come to their work spaces to collect their belongings. A fired employee told the media that “It’s not fair to the workers who worked so seriously so hard to be fired like this. It’s not fair to a mother who just gave birth to a baby to wonder if she even has health insurance to cover it. It’s not fair to the cancer patient in the middle of chemotherapy about how to pay for her treatments”.
On Wednesday, a former employee in Mississippi, Toria Neal, filed a lawsuit against UFI, alleging the company violated federal law by failing to give 60 days’ notice before disbanding operations.
Comments to the article(0):
Your response has been received and will be published subject to the system policy.
Thanks.
for a new comment
Your response was not sent due to a communication problem, please try again.
Return to comment