2,700 Workers Wake-Up To Find They Lost Their Jobs While Sleeping

A well known U.S. furniture company fired all of their 2,700 employees this week while they were sleeping.

The employees were shocked to wake up the next morning, only to find texts and emails stating to no longer come into work the next day or any day forthcoming.

The mass firing on Tuesday by United Furniture Industries, which makes budget-friendly sofas and recliners for Simmons Upholstery, left thousands of employees including truck drivers and factory workers in North Carolina, Mississippi and California unemployed just two days before Thanksgiving.

“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, on Nov. 21,” the company said in messages to employees. 

“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 provision of COBRA,” the message concluded.

Drivers were informed they would be paid for the remainder of the week and that the should immediately return equipment, inventory and delivery documents.

A UFI truck driver was arrested in Monroe County, Miss., on suspicion of taking furniture off of a truck after he was laid off by the company.

It has not been confirmed what prompted the two-decade-old company to suddenly dissolve its operations overnight, but over the summer it had fired its chief executive, chief financial officer and executive vice president of sales.

Several weeks later, some 500 employees lost their jobs at multiple facilities in Winston-Salem, NC, and Verona, Mississippi. and Victorville, California.

A UFI spokesperson said, “On Tuesday, workers were later told they could come to their work spaces to gather their belongings.”

A laid-off worker said, “It’s not fair to the laborers who seriously worked so hard to be blindsided like this. It’s not fair to the mom who just had a baby to wonder if she even has health insurance to cover it. It’s not fair to the cancer patient in the midst of chemo about how to pay for her treatments.”

On Wednesday a former employee in Mississippi, Toria Neal, filed a lawsuit against UFI, alleging that the company violated federal law by failing to give 60 days’ notice before dissolving the operations.