A Mississippi-based furniture company laid off nearly 2,700 workers in the US just days before Thanksgiving, according to multiple reports.
Just before midnight on November 21, thousands of workers—many of whom were asleep—received a text message from United Furniture Industries (UFI) saying they had effectively been laid off and not allowed to return to work.
“By order of the Board of Directors … we regret to inform you that unforeseen business circumstances have forced the Company to make the difficult decision to immediately terminate the employment of all of its employees,” reads the statement, which the New York Post reviewed, said.
“Your resignation from the company is expected to be permanent and all benefits will terminate immediately without Cobra,” read a follow-up email from the company, referring to a federal law that gives employees who lose their jobs the option to keep their jobs. their employer-sponsored health insurance under certain circumstances.
The company also instructed its drivers to immediately return “equipment, inventory and delivery documents” regardless of “whether or not [they] have completed [their] delivery”.
Employees were given no explanation as to why they were fired so abruptly. On Tuesday, UFI sent an update on the retrieval of their assets, which FreightWaves assessed.
“Once the property manager can provide a safe and orderly process for former employees to collect their belongings, they will… We are unsure of the time frame for this, but will communicate proactively,” the email read.
In response, numerous employees expressed shock and frustration at their abrupt dismissal.
An employee told FreightWaves, “It is not fair to the workers who have worked so hard to be blinded like this. It’s not fair to the mom who just had 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 chemo about how to pay for her treatments.”
Another contributor, TJ Martin, told WLBT, “This has been a drastic shock to all of us… That puts a damper on everyone’s mind, especially when you’re told to be ready to hit it hard on Monday. Each of us is committed to the company. We consider each other family members.”
On Wednesday, former employee Toria Neal filed a lawsuit against the company alleging it violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act by failing to give at least 60 days notice of the closure.
