United Furniture fires more than 2,500 employees days before holiday

BELDEN, Miss. (WCBI) – More than 2,500 employees of United Furniture are now without jobs, just days before Thanksgiving.

Employees of United Furniture, which owns Lane Furniture, received word of the mass layoffs through text messages and memos early this morning.

The memo, from the board of directors, said, in part, “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 on Nov. 21, 2022, with the exception of over-the-road drivers that are out on delivery. Your layoff from the company is expected to be permanent and all benefits will be terminated immediately without the provision of COBRA.”

We caught up with some former employees of the Lane plant in Belden who were at the WIN Job Center across the street from their old plant. They said the layoffs were a shock to everyone.

“It was, everyone I spoke to since midnight, I have been back and forth with employees, and co-workers, it was a drastic shock, to all of us, no one saw this coming. We are all up here at the unemployment office, it’s an immediate response on our behalf, we really didn’t know anything else to do,” said TJ Martin, former Lane employee.

Martin said he has not received word about any severance pay, and he also tells us that all former employees have personal items in the plant they need to get. But the front gate at the Belden plant was closed to all traffic this morning.

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