Mississippi-based furniture company lays off 2,700 workers

TUPELO, Miss. — A Mississippi-based firm that had turn into one of many largest furnishings companies within the nation has laid off practically its whole workforce.

Roughly 2,700 staff, most of whom stay in northeast Mississippi, misplaced their jobs Monday, in keeping with the Northeast Mississippi Every day Journal.

Simply days earlier than the Thanksgiving vacation, United Furnishings Industries despatched a memo by way of e-mail and textual content to staff late Monday night time informing them to not report back to their shifts Tuesday.

A second e-mail knowledgeable staff their “layoff from the corporate is anticipated to be everlasting and all advantages will probably be terminated instantly with out provision of COBRA,” referring to the federal legislation that offers individuals who lose their jobs an choice to hold their employer-sponsored medical health insurance protection underneath some circumstances.

Some staff have been sleeping when the emails hit their inboxes. Others by no means noticed the emails earlier than heading to work. Firm drivers who have been out making deliveries have been instructed to return to a United Furnishings location instantly to show of their vehicles.

The memo mentioned the layoffs have been made on the instruction of the corporate’s board of administrators and have been as a consequence of “unexpected enterprise circumstances.” The memo didn’t supply any particular particulars about what led to the layoffs.

The corporate’s communications group didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

United Furnishings Industries, primarily based in Okolona, Miss., makes furnishings underneath its model and the Lane Dwelling Furnishings model, which it acquired in 2017 from Heritage Dwelling Group LLC for an undisclosed sum. Lane was based in 1912 in Virginia and merged with Tupelo-based Motion Industries in 1972.

Furnishings At present, a commerce publication, reported that United fired its chief govt, chief monetary officer and govt vice chairman of gross sales in June. It then named Todd Evans, the previous president of Customary Furnishings, an Alabama-based firm, as its new chief govt.

Along with eight vegetation in Mississippi, United additionally had six vegetation in North Carolina and one in California. Layoffs came about on the North Carolina and California places as nicely.