Holiday cheer from Corporate

[billy.pilgrim]

Fired in their sleep

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ers-asleep

"Mississippi-based furniture company abruptly fired nearly 2,7000 workers in the US just days before Thanksgiving, according to multiple reports.

Right before midnight on 21 November, thousands of workers – many of whom were asleep – received a text message from United Furniture Industries (UFI) saying that they were terminated effectively and were no longer allowed to return to work.

“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,” the message, which the New York Post reviewed, said.

"Your layoff from the company is expected to be permanent and all benefits will be terminated immediately without provision of Cobra,” a follow-up email from the company read,"


No benifits, no insurance for you bunch of fucking losers, we got a much better deal from 3rd world slave labor.


#2) It's been about 30 or 40 years ago that one of the big blue jean sewing factories fired everyone a couple of days before Christmas. I think it was Lee or Wrangler, but don’t know for sure. They were moving the jobs out of the country.
Here's the only reference I can find to its existence.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275451934785

[Vrede too]

Fired in their sleep

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ers-asleep

"'... Your layoff from the company is expected to be permanent and all benefits will be terminated immediately without provision of Cobra,' a follow-up email from the company read,"


No benefits, no insurance for you bunch of fucking losers, we got a much better deal from 3rd world slave labor....

I thought that COBRA was an unassailable federal mandate, but:

... COBRA does not apply if coverage is lost because the employer has terminated the plan altogether or because the employer has gone out of business....

Assholes.

[billy.pilgrim]

Fired in their sleep

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ers-asleep

"'... Your layoff from the company is expected to be permanent and all benefits will be terminated immediately without provision of Cobra,' a follow-up email from the company read,"


No benefits, no insurance for you bunch of fucking losers, we got a much better deal from 3rd world slave labor....

I thought that COBRA was an unassailable federal mandate, but:

... COBRA does not apply if coverage is lost because the employer has terminated the plan altogether or because the employer has gone out of business....

Assholes.

Since when is moving your work to another country the same as going out of business? (Pure speculation on my part)

[Vrede too]

I thought that COBRA was an unassailable federal mandate, but:

... COBRA does not apply if coverage is lost because the employer has terminated the plan altogether or because the employer has gone out of business....

Assholes.

Since when is moving your work to another country the same as going out of business? (Pure speculation on my part)

"terminated the plan altogether"
Also speculation on my part. Or maybe they've canceled the US outfit and will create a new one overseas.

[GoCubsGo]

There's going to be a time when some " former employees" go postal on a Board of Directors member or two and I wouldn't blame them.

[billy.pilgrim]

Bring out the guillotine.

[O Really]

#2) It's been about 30 or 40 years ago that one of the big blue jean sewing factories fired everyone a couple of days before Christmas. I think it was Lee or Wrangler, but don’t know for sure. They were moving the jobs out of the country.
Here's the only reference I can find to its existence.

I don't doubt the story. Both brands are owned by VF Corporation, since 1986. So it could have been either of them and it's all the same. Supposedly Wrangler quit its last US manufacturing in 1994 (later than I would have guessed). Apparel and textile corporations are scum. They were scum when they sucked the blood out of non-union US workers, and they're scum when they suck the blood out of Chinese/Indosnesian/Vietnamese/Whatever workers. They were scum when they left New England to run from unions; they were scum when the real "Norma Rae" was around, and they're scum to this day.

Someday over a beer maybe I'll tell you what I really think about that industry.

[billy.pilgrim]

#2) It's been about 30 or 40 years ago that one of the big blue jean sewing factories fired everyone a couple of days before Christmas. I think it was Lee or Wrangler, but don’t know for sure. They were moving the jobs out of the country.
Here's the only reference I can find to its existence.

I don't doubt the story. Both brands are owned by VF Corporation, since 1986. So it could have been either of them and it's all the same. Supposedly Wrangler quit its last US manufacturing in 1994 (later than I would have guessed). Apparel and textile corporations are scum. They were scum when they sucked the blood out of non-union US workers, and they're scum when they suck the blood out of Chinese/Indosnesian/Vietnamese/Whatever workers. They were scum when they left New England to run from unions; they were scum when the real "Norma Rae" was around, and they're scum to this day.

Someday over a beer maybe I'll tell you what I really think about that industry.

Yeah they suck. You left out the part about how heavily they were invested in the slave trade.
Huge tangent ahead.
In high school I dated the daughter of a Pepperell mill worker who lived in one of those tiny mill shacks.
I also tried out as an extra in Norma Rae, but I reckon they didn't need hippie hair.

[O Really]

I also tried out as an extra in Norma Rae, but I reckon they didn't need hippie hair.

That would have been a good experience. I met the real "Norma Rae" (Crystal Lee Sutton) once. She was a real life hero, but not at all much like Sally Fields.

[O Really]

So it's not real easy to find exactly which plants might have been the ill-fated one in your story, and if it really came from Foley, it might not have been VF/Wrangler/Lee at all. At the height of it's US production, Wrangler operated some big plants, including Tupelo MS, but Lee was largely southwest, Oklahoma. Wrangler had some Alabama plants, but mostly north state. Interestingly enough, however, in 2001 Wrangler moved to Mexico, and since 2005, Lee has been made by Arvind Mills, in a number of small factories in Chamarajanagar, India. "About 60,000 workers produce 5,000 pairs of jeans a day." Since both brands are owned by the same company you might expect everything to be made in India, and it may be. But the Mexican move was the last I found referenced and a quick look in the drawer found a pair "hecho en Mexico". Funny how people think the Mexicans are sneaking into the US to "steal caucasian jobs" but really they don't need to sneak. Just stay home and US jobs will come to them.

[billy.pilgrim]

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/u ... anksgiving

Somehow this may be Biden's fault? Fox shares Biden video with UFI firing headline.

Fox does offer a little more detail on the furniture company

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/u ... anksgiving

"Layoffs took place at United's North Carolina and California locations as well."

"United Furniture Industries is based in Okolona, Miss., and makes furniture under its brand and the Lane Home Furnishings brand.

It acquired the brand in 2017 from Heritage Home Group LLC for an undisclosed sum.

The Associated Press contributed to this report."

So they've owned the company for 5 years. Now it looks to me that the firings may have been the original plan by some group of billionaire investors, say hedge fund.