Mississippi-based United Furniture Industries fires 2700 employees via text days before Thanksgiving
OKOLONA, MISSISSIPPI: 2700 employees at a furniture company got the shock of their life waking up to termination emails and texts from the United Furniture Industries. Life of ex-employees had been "torn apart" as at the time they were preparing for "big thanksgiving parties." On November 21, all of the workforce were terminated at Okolona as the company "suddenly' dissolved its operations. However, it has come to the fore that the company had started to shuffle and terminate CEOs and Executives in June while also laying off 300 employees and shutting down several facilities.
A 36-year-old employee Tora Neal has four children under 21 years of age and she was looking forward to a big family Thanksgiving when a text popped up on her phone turning her life upside down as she lost her job, along with everyone else in her company. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. The text said we were all being terminated and all our benefits including our health insurance were being terminated effective immediately. I had a really bad breakdown right there on the spot. I thought, what am I going to do?” Neal said as per the New York Post.
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With a lot of bills to pay, Neal said, “I couldn’t sleep after I got the text,” as she broke down in tears. “It tore me apart. It felt like such a betrayal. Not just of me but of all of us. I worry about the older employees there who take medication every day and won’t be able to afford it after today without health insurance.” Neal worked as a traffic coordinator at United Furniture's Mississippi location.
Some employees were asleep and didn't notice it until the next morning. Others apparently started driving to work before reading the message. In a complaint, Neal claims that the corporation violated federal law by failing to provide 60 days' notice before ceasing operations. It was a terrible Thanksgiving, according to Neal, who has worked for United Furniture since 2015, the report mentioned.
“It was so hard and so emotional,” she said of the holiday. “I have family members who work there as well. I still find it difficult to talk about without breaking down. We all left Monday saying, see y’all tomorrow not knowing we might not see some people ever again,” said Neal. “We still have personal stuff in there but it’s all locked up right now. We had no inkling anything like this was going to happen, either,” she added.
“At the instruction of the board of directors … we regret to inform you that due to unforeseen business circumstances, the company has been forced to make the difficult decision to terminate the employment of all its employees, effective immediately, on Nov. 21,” the company said in messages to employees. “With the exception of over-the-road drivers that are out on delivery. Your layoff from the company is expected to be permanent and all benefits will be terminated immediately without provision of COBRA,” the message further read.
The company had fired its CEO, CFO, and executive vice president of sales in June of this year, and hired former Standard Furniture President Todd Evans as CEO. Following that, the business revamped its sales organization and appointed Ruff Thomas and Keith News to sales leadership positions, with Thomas as designated president of sales for Lane's domestic division, and News becoming president of sales for Lane's import division.
Within a month of that, the business laid off 300 workers and shuttered or repurposed many sites. This includes eliminating its High Point metal stamping facility, converting a manufacturing factory in Amory to a warehousing-only business, and converting a Winston-Salem, N.C., operation to an East Coast distribution hub, as per Furniture Today.