‘A nightmare.’ ‘A shock to the system.’ Bitwise employees seek support after furlough

Jasmine Bonilla said she was “non-stop” crying last week after she and 900 of her Bitwise Industries colleagues were unexpectedly furloughed.

“It was a shock to the system,” Bonilla said. “We got the rug pulled out from under us.”

A week after the furloughs rocked Fresno, Bitwise employees are trying to get back on their feet with the support of the local community and elected officials, who are providing direct assistance from their offices as well as organizing a resource fair.

Meanwhile, a Fresno lawyer is helping California-based employees file a class action lawsuit.

Over the past week, Bonilla said she had difficult conversations with her bank, mortgage company and doctor’s office.

“I had to cancel appointments because I didn’t know if I had insurance or not,” she said, “it was just reliving that trauma all over again.”

The furlough is having a “domino effect” on the community, Bonilla said. “It’s not just people losing their jobs. It’s one entire household losing their entire source of income, it’s businesses around us that we’re not shopping at anymore.”

Bitwise employees ‘worth fighting for,’ class action lawyer says

Roger Bonakdar, the lawyer representing furloughed workers, said one of the reasons the furlough “struck a personal chord” with him is because he knew some of the employees personally.

“It’s an absolute nightmare for these families,” he said in an interview with The Bee on Monday.

Bonakdar plans to allege a violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, a state law that requires companies give employees 60 days notice of furloughs and layoffs. He also plans to try to seek damages for employees, in light of allegations from employees that some paychecks bounced and that Bitwise had stopped making matching contributions to their 401(k) retirement savings program in March.

Bonakdar is also running for a seat on city council to represent District 6, which covers northeast Fresno, city records show. The seat is currently held by Councilmember Garry Bredefeld.

Fresno city leaders also said last week that the company likely violated state law.

City Attorney Andrew Janz said what Bitwise leaders described as “furloughs” rather than “layoffs” fall under the provisions of the WARN Act.

Bonakdar said the lawsuit could be a “long and hard fought battle” that could drag on for years.

“Sometimes, there are hard fights that have to be fought when they’re worth fighting,” he said, “and these 300 Fresno families and Valley families are worth fighting for.”

He said his office is already in touch with “well over 100 locally affected Bitwise employees” and encourages others to get in touch because there is “strength in numbers.”

He expects the lawsuit to be filed this week.

“We are locked and loaded and we’re going to bring down as much force on these folks as we can to try and help these families,” he said in an interview with The Bee on Monday. “What happened to them is unconscionable and we’re going to hold them (Bitwise) accountable.”

Bitwise’s board of directors has not yet responded to The Bee’s request for comment.

How some furloughed Bitwise employees are surviving, pivoting

Some employees are seeking more immediate relief.

Chris Ramos, a community revitalization specialist with Bitwise Industries, said in an Instagram post on his Vintage Fresno account that he, his husband, and his mother were all employed by Bitwise. His mother only recently joined the company in January “after leaving her job of 10 years,” he said.

Ramos is using his personal Venmo page to raise money so his family can “stay on our feet.”

“We wanted to work at Bitwise as a family until we all retired and believed in the work Bitwise was doing in the world,” he said, “We’re devastated by all of this.”

Bonilla, too, is finding ways to move forward.

She’s combining her social media savvy with her passion for vintage goods to grow her online and pop-up business, Dos Manos Finds, a passion project she started during the pandemic where she sells vintage clothing, home decor, and glassware.

Bonilla is not involved in the class action lawsuit at this time. While she’s unsure whether she should focus on her business full-time, find freelance social media work or find another full-time job, one thing is clear for Bonilla.

“The outpouring of love” from people – within the vintage community, friends, family, and strangers – was something she had never imagined. “It was like, ‘Oh, I’m a person that people care about, if they don’t know me.”

Others are creating fundraisers on platforms like GoFundMe, selling baked goods or artwork online.

Meanwhile local Fresno businesses are offering things like a free food and hygiene pantry or a month of free yoga to impacted employees.

Job fair for Bitwise workers on Friday

The Fresno Regional Workforce Development Board is hosting two, in-person sessions for impacted Bitwise employees on Friday.

The sessions will cover how to access assistance such as unemployment benefits, social services, job training resources, housing counseling, low cost auto insurance, and more.

Registration for the 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. sessions are now open.