Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
Alabama: Another coal miner going down, this time Walter Energy now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. The bankruptcy will affect mining ops in Alabama and West Virginia, but will not affect operations outside the U.S.
California: In Camarillo, Semtech laying off 8% of employees. Back in 2014 they eliminated 6% of their jobs. It’s blamed on crashing sales: “Given our recent revenue decline driven primarily by weak Korean smartphone demand, we have made the very difficult decision to reduce our headcount and operating expenses across a majority of Semtech’s locations.”-Mohan Maheswaran, CEO
Connecticut: ObamaCare forced non-profit Eastern Connecticut Health Network to layoff 24 employees, eliminate 14 vacant positions and cut hours for other employees. It’s directly blamed on lower Medicaid reimbursements and higher taxes. In Rocky Hill, news reports revealed that KS Partners replaced about 20 of their long term career janitors with cheap migrant workers: “They put in new people. No benefits. Minimum wage.”-Domingo Guerrero, 16 year employee replaced with new immigrant labor
News reports say administrators with KS Partners refuse to comment.
Idaho: KPVI revealed that Walmart was ripping off a Pocatello business. The owners of Pocatello based American Built Apparel (not associated with troubled California based American Apparel) discovered Walmart was selling shirts with their logo on it, but they weren’t made by them! The shirts were made by a company Walmart contracts with, called Hybrid Apparel, and Hybrid Apparel decided to settle the lawsuit brought by American Built Apparel. American Built owner Nicholas Carson said the U.S. corporate system is unfair: “You jump through all the hoops, jump through the legal system to get a federal trademark to protect your business, and a big company comes in and steps all over it!”-KPVI interview
Pocatello administrators have revealed their hyped up deal to bring a major employer to Pocatello Regional Airport is dead, for now. Administrators have been claiming since November that an unnamed company code named Project Pipe was about to set up shop at the airport. One problem, the operation might be in conflict with FAA environmental regulations. The so called Project Pipe company has announced they are not going to wait any longer for a decision by the FAA regarding the environmental impact of the project, and will go elsewhere to set up shop: “Project Pipe needed to be in place by a certain date. We were already five months behind schedule and we were getting bogged down in the environmental review process.”-David Allen, Pocatello Regional Airport press release
‘Pokey’ administrators will now play a shell game to rezone some of the airport land as no longer being airport land, to avoid the FAA rules: “We are taking the necessary steps to remove about 900 acres of land from the official Airport property map. This land was already released by the FAA for non-aeronautical use and can be removed from the map under proper procedures. The City will still own the land, it will still be annexed into the City limits and it will still have advantageous access to air transportation. But once it is no longer Airport property, it no longer falls under FAA rules. When future projects are identified, the City would only have to ensure the project does not create an aviation hazard or otherwise impact aviation.”-David Allen
Right to Work you over gov’na Butch Otter is forcing taxpayers to give ‘lawmakers’ multi-million dollar retirements! Idaho Freedom Foundation reports that Dean Cameron of Rupert has been promised $1.4-million USD if he stays in office for only four years! Bob Geddes of Soda Springs is being promised a little more than $1-million if he remains the Department of Administration’s director for a mere 30 months! Gov’na Otter told Boise radio interviewers that his offers of huge pensions to at least 11 ‘officials’ were “miniscule”! Powerball Lottery administrators in The Gem State have revealed that their kickbacks to the state are crashing. The state dividend from Powerball fell by 8% compared to 2014. It’s the first time the lottery dividend dropped from the previous year. Right to Work you over gov’na Butch Otter stopped short of mandating lottery ticket purchases: “I’m not going to put a gun to anybody’s head and make them buy a lottery ticket…We can do marketing; we can encourage people in a responsible way.”
Interestingly lottery administrators said they were not going to spend anymore money on advertising, when you couple that with Otter’s statement it suggests that Idaho taxpayers will be funding the “marketing” Otter proposes. And now for an update on the scandal ridden and now defunct Idaho Education Network (IEN); news reports say gov’na Otter and his cronies spent at least 1-million taxpayer dollars paying attorneys to defend the IEN! This is on top of the millions of taxpayer dollars that will be spent settling lawsuits with Syringa Wireless, Education Networks of America and Qwest Communications!
Missouri: Bermuda based Bunge shutting down its cooking oil packaging factory in Bradley by 2016, about 210 jobs lost! Administrators are consolidating operations.
Ohio: Fiat-Chrysler announced they are considering shutting down their Jeep Wrangler factory in Toledo. However, it’s not due to bad sales but because the 2017 model Wrangler is so radically different they must re-tool the factory to build it. The factory could be closed for at least 60 days. Owens Community College revealed what I call massive Disappearing Students Syndrome. In 2009 they had 23,606 students, by January 2015 they were down to 11,719! Despite the crashing enrollment, administrators claim they will not layoff anymore employees (they’ve already eliminated 50 positions, and ask employees to take time off without pay).
Rhode Island: In Woonsocket, J’s Deli shutdown due to lack of employees, despite the fact the owner pays more than minimum wage: “Due to our repeated unsuccessful efforts to hire a full team of quality associates to join us at this location of J’s Deli, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend operations at this location only.”-sign on door
Texas: After taking-over 99 years old competitor Forest Oil, Houston based Sabine Oil & Gas now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. Administrators blame low oil prices, but maybe it’s really the $2.2-billion in pro forma debt as a result of taking over Forest Oil. It’s been revealed that L3 Communications has laid off 207 people at the Corpus Christi Army Depot! Those layoffs took place over the past six months and more could be coming due to L3 losing its tax-sucking military contract.
Virginia: In Buena Vista, packaging label maker Mundet-Hermetite is shutting down, at least 40 jobs lost by September.
Wisconsin: In Superior, after 16 years Joe’s Pagoda restaurant shutdown.
15 July 2015: “The whole market is surprised at the rapid plunge…”
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) no longer issues mass layoff reports: “On March 1, 2013, President Obama ordered into effect the across-the- board spending cuts (commonly referred to as sequestration) required by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended. Under the order, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) must cut its current budget by more than $30 million, 5 percent of the current 2013 appropriation, by September 30, 2013. In order to help achieve these savings and protect core programs, the BLS will eliminate two programs, including Mass Layoff Statistics, and all ‘measuring green jobs’ products. This news release is the final publication of monthly mass layoff survey data.”