Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
Alaska: The Kake Gunnuk Creek hatchery shutdown.
Arkansas: God refused to stop all powerful Obama Care from forcing Catholic owned CHI Saint Vincent (aka Saint Vincent Health) to kill 157 healthcare jobs!
California: State employment officials said for the months of April, May and June they’d received layoff and shutdown notices affecting at least 13005 people! In Hemet, the 40 years old Kmart announced it will shutdown, 77 jobs lost. In Oakland, Dobake Bakeries announced they will shutdown in August, 221 jobs lost! In Los Angeles, Wolfgang Puck announced it will kill 76 jobs in July. In Atwater, AT&T Mobility announced they will shutdown in August, at least 397 jobs lost! In Pittsburg, United Spiral Pipe announced 44 layoffs planned for August. In Barstow, MV Transportation announced 30 layoffs for August. In Montebello, Katzkin Leather announced 75 layoffs for August.
Colorado: In Fort Collins, after 19 years Colorado Drum & Percussion shutdown: “The economic downturn in 2009 really took a toll on the business, and we never fully recovered….”-Clark Bennett, owner
Florida: Click HERE to see a list of crashing and burning HMOs (no thanks to Obama Care). What housing market recovery? RealtyTrac says the Sunshine State has the second highest “zombie foreclosure” rate in the U.S. Zombie foreclosure means the occupant believes the home is being foreclosed on, then moves out, but the foreclosure takes so long that sometimes it’s forgotten by the banks, or sometimes there never was a true foreclosure filed, and you end up with neighborhoods filled with vacant homes. Speaking of foreclosure, the Old Jupiter mobile home park seized by Too Big to Jail Wells Fargo. In Broward County the company that runs the local Five Guys burger joints, ASCI Broward, is now chapter 11 bankrupt busted, 120 jobs threatened! It’s blamed on a lawsuit filed by investors.
Illinois: Chicago Public Schools laid off 1150 employees! School officials claim the layoffs are the lowest in the past five years! The job killing is blamed on the ever increasing number of disappearing students and a new per-pupil funding formula.
Indiana: In Plainfield, document manager Novitex Enterprise Solutions (aka Pitney Bowes Management Services) announced it will shut down in September, 155 jobs lost! Last year the same company shutdown their warehouse, killing 137 jobs!
Kansas: In Derby, the maker of industrial technologies (including those designed to replace human workers) Q Corporation now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. 71 of the 75 employees have been laid off. Local news media also discovered the Q Corporation building is now up for sale. Q Corporation was created in 1969, its downfall is being blamed on the owners. In 2011, Q Corporation took advantage of state taxpayer funding to re-train about half its employees. In 2009 a group of employees took over the company, and recently they tried selling it to some vulture capitalists in Chicago, however that deal fell through. The bankruptcy revealed the former employees turned company owners have pushed the company into $1-million USD of debt. God can’t stop Christian non-profit Ottawa University from laying off 18 employees. School officials say the layoffs are “a preventive measure” against the growing number of disappearing (raptured?) students. The federal terrorist, I mean tax collector known as IRS placed a lean against aviation subcontractor Machining Programming Manufacturing. The IRS claims the company never sent in the payroll taxes it collected from its employees!
Louisiana: After 55 years the Piccadilly Cafeteria in the Westmoreland Village Shopping Center shutdown. Does it have something to do with the new Catholic owners of the shopping center, or the new New York based owners of the Piccadilly chain?
Massachusetts: In Easton, after 60 years McMenamy’s Hamburger House shutdown. The building was sold. In Haverhill, Archie’s Little River Ale House shutdown.
Minnesota: There are reports that the international food giant General Mills has a secret cost cutting (job killing?) plan in the works, due to crashing sales.
Missouri: In Saint Louis, after 12 years Lemmons Bar & Club shutdown, the owner Mike Gross explained that “When all you can see is the negatives and you can’t see the positives, it’s a good indication that it’s time to bail out!” In Neosho, after 58 years Premier Turbines Manufacturing shutting down in 2015, no reason given other than the company has been experiencing “turmoil”, 80 jobs lost. Children’s mental-health facility, Cottonwood Residential Treatment Center in Cape Girardeau, shutting down in January due to state and federal (Obama Care) taxpayer funding cuts, 95 jobs lost. Ozarks Community Hospital announced: “Beginning today, we are providing notice to employees that we are laying off as many as 60 employees in 60 days…….Even if Missouri expands Medicaid in the future, it will be virtually impossible for us to recapture this loss of capacity. Hospitals cannot shrink and expand as readily as other industries. I fear that Missouri will never recover the ground it is now losing statewide as a result of political posturing.”-Paul Taylor, CEO
Montana: More trouble for an appliance chain store originally founded in Montana. In Bozeman Vann’s shutdown, it’s the fourth store to close since the company was sold off to Texas based McMagic Partners. This means there is only one store left! When Vann’s was sold off it had five stores in Montana, now, according to local news reports only one remains (Hamilton, Kalispell and Missoula stores were shutdown in 2013, conveniently blamed on disagreements over rent). 150 employees affected by the shutdowns! To show you how deep corporate rabbit holes can go, the once Montana based Vann’s is now owned by Texas based McMagic Partners. At the time of the sale of Vann’s the man responsible for the takeover, Ross Khaledi, was listed as the CEO of HK Global Trading. Both HK Global Trading and McMagic Partners are owned by Florida based Khaledi Group Holding Company. Khaledi Group Holding Company is described as a “family business” which owns about 38 companies, many involved in ‘duty free’ sales of appliances. Also, in 2013 Vann’s employees sued their former CEO and CFO, alleging the executives spent company money for personal reasons, which forced the bankruptcy and sale of Vann’s in 2012. During the 2012 bankruptcy sale here is what one of the then vice presidents of McMagic Partners said about Vann’s: “We intend to continue business and retain the employees. And rebuild the business in the marketplace.”-Alan Huxtable (proof you can’t trust any corporate official)
New Jersey: Yet another casino going down. After 27 years the Caesars owned Showboat Atlantic City Hotel and Casino shutdown, 2100 employees out-o-work! Union officials were upset because federal WARN law says employees are supposed to get 60 days notice. The Showboat was making a profit, but officials with Caesars said for the first half of 2014 Showboat experienced a 77% drop in profits compared to the same time last year! Warren based semiconductor and broadband company Anadigics announced it will kill 140 jobs across the U.S.! It’s blamed on declining sales.
New York: What housing market recovery? RealtyTrac says the Empire State has the highest “zombie foreclosure” rate in the U.S. In Schenectady, Price Chopper killed 80 jobs. Company officials blamed, in part, Obama Care for creating “Skyrocketing health care costs…” for the company. In Brooklyn, after nine years women’s boutique Pop shutdown. The owner blames the rapidly changing socio-politico-business environment: “….it’s not the same place for a small business owner as it was even three years ago!”-Sheila Sharma
Oklahoma: In Stillwater, storage tank maker Total Energy Fabrication Corporation shutdown, 55 jobs lost. It’s blamed on “significant operational challenges and weakening market conditions”, in other words there is no economic recovery.
Pennsylvania: In Pottsgrove, the Kmart shutting down in September, 65 jobs lost. Kindred Hospital’s North Side facility being sold off, 152 jobs lost! The buyer, LifeCare Hospitals, told news media they have no intention of hiring on the Kindred employees.
Virginia: Yet another coal mine shuts down, this time Alpha Natural Resources closed their Cherokee Mine, killing 121 jobs!
West Virginia: Patriot Coal laid off another 75 coal miners. Back in April they laid off 100 miners!
Wisconsin: In De Pere, Wisconsin International School shutdown without notice! Local news reports stated that teachers had not been paid! Officials with the privately run grade school stated “The Wisconsin International School has closed due to declining enrollment and mounting financial pressures.”
24 – 25 June 2014: “…..no one had our backs!”
The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) doesn’t count the hundreds of layoffs involving less than 50 people each, in its mass layoff reports. It also doesn’t count all the little ‘mom & pop’ businesses that shut down.
“Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security…That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional.”-Barack Obama, 10 September 2013