Nov. 22—United Furniture laid off its entire workforce overnight Monday, Nov. 21. Approximately 2,700 employees lost their jobs, most of whom live in Northeast Mississippi.

The Daily Journal is provided updates throughout the day on this developing story.

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FULL COVERAGE

» 2,700 lose jobs as United Furniture terminates entire workforce

» Former employees share stories of mass layoff

» Community coming together to support impacted workers

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CREATE, Salvation Army stepping up to help families affected (3:48 p.m. update)

The sudden overnight termination of thousands of United and Lane furniture employees has brought out the best in northeast Mississippi residents.

The Create Foundation has established a special assistance fund to help employees and the Salvation Army has reopened Angel Tree registration to help their children.

"Even if you have never adopted an Angel, we are asking the community to consider it now," Salvation Army Capt. Heather Dolby said. "We want these United and Lane families to know that even in this time of upheaval, neighbors are concerned about neighbors."

Read the full story from William Moore.

Former employee: 'I thought it was a hack' (1:36 p.m. update)

Denise Alomari worked in the United Furniture office in Verona for six years in customer service. She felt it was callous and impersonal for the company to fire people by text in the middle of the night. She received hers at 10:56 p.m. Monday but didn't notice until Tuesday morning. And then she didn't believe it was real.

"I thought it was a hack, but then folks started calling and I realized it was real. My heart just dropped," Alomari said. "I went to work (Monday) and it was everything as normal. Nobody said a word. There was no hint about what was going to happen."

Now she has a desk full of personal items that she can't retrieve because the doors are locked.

Looking back in hindsight, she said there were some rumblings that the company was in financial trouble. During the October market in High Point, North Carolina, several people asked United CEO Mike Watson about the rumors of bankruptcy. He just brushed the rumors aside.

"We heard that bills were not getting paid but just figured that was the economy and things would pick up," Alomari said.

While the bulk of the United employees had no idea the entire workforce would lose their jobs days before Thanksgiving, some higher ups in the company saw the writing on the wall and got out while they could.

"Several vice president-level people have left the company in the last several months," Alomari said.

Ashley Furniture sets up job fair (1:22 p.m. update)

Ashley Furniture took advantage of the sudden increase in people looking for jobs and set up a recruitment tent at Crosstown Tuesday.

"We've been doing these pop-ups for a couple of years," said Ashley field recruitment supervisor Diana Ortiz. "We've had a lot of United employees stop by and fill out applications."

They were looking for employees in all aspects of the business, from the production line to the administrative offices. For some new applicants, Ashley was scheduling interviews Tuesday afternoon.

"We will be back out here (Wednesday)," said Ortiz. "The ones who are coming by today, they are actively trying to solve a problem and are eager to work. The will be good employees. The ones who wait until after the holidays don't have the same motivation."

Local officials setting up job fair for Tuesday (11:23 a.m. update)

Hours after news broke that all employees at United Furniture were laid off overnight, city, county and local economic officials scrambled to help where they could.

Community Development Foundation CEO David Rumbarger said since the organization heard about the mass layoff, it has been working "feverishly" to assist the some 1,000 affected Lee County residents.

"The timing of this is tremendously unfortunate," he said. "We are going to do everything we can to get these people back to work."

To that end, CDF Director of Existing Business Development Maury Giachelli said the organization will partner with Three Rivers Planning and Development District and Itawamba Community College to provide a job fair Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the ICC's Belden campus.

As of Tuesday morning, 12 companies agreed to join the fair, including Ashley Furniture and Toyota Mississippi. He said he hopes to have 20 employers at the fair.

"We've suffered closures like this in the past and come out stronger," he said.

Gaichelli noted that he believed the county had a "great diversity" of furniture and other employers that should be able to pick up the laid-off workers. It is that diversity, he said, that gives him hope for the people.

Meanwhile, County Administrator Bill Benson called the mass layoffs a "terrible" situation, noting that the Lee County Board of Supervisors would assist if it could.

"I know the board is ready to do anything it can to assist in the efforts of placing these folks," Benson said, adding that he was unsure if there were any specific actions the board could take.

Former United employee speaks out (11:12 a.m. update)

Jeff Jones, a line supplier for United Furniture for more than 30 years, learned this morning about the overnight email informing him he had lost his job, along with thousands of other employees.

"I was sound asleep (when it happened) and was checking my email early in the morning from a coworker. His message was pretty simple. The first one was we're out of a job. I found out about the email and read it. We're just all devastated. We didn't see it coming," Jones said.

Jones said the company had reduced hours recently, but that this was unexpected.

"I've been with the company through several owners and names. We've always bounced back. In the email they made it perfectly clear there's no bouncing back from this," he said.

Jones said he had worked there so long that "there were coworkers that worked there everyday that weren't even around when I started. There were people there that were more like family than coworkers."

Despite the bad news, Jones is keeping a positive attitude.

"I told my coworker that informed me that right before we got off for Thanksgiving holiday. Everyone got their Thanksgiving turkeys. I guess that turkey was our severance package," he said.

Jones said he and other coworkers have received a lot of well wishes and support, including people passing along job opportunities to consider. Right now, he sad he was calm.

"I think it's the calm before the storm. Right now it seems surreal. We're going to bounce back and hit the ground running," he said.

Monroe County authorities mobilizing to help impacted workers (10:09 a.m. update)

UFI was Monroe County's largest employer, and she said by the last job count, roughly 2,000 employees were from the county. The company had locations in Amory, Nettleton and Wren.

"We're heartbroken and in prayers for all of those affected. We're working and partnering with our economic development friends at CDF, Three Rivers, the WIN Job Center and Accelerate MS to help deploy as many resources and available information on jobs and the rapid response," said Monroe County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Chelsea Baulch.

Original story:

Some 2,700 United Furniture Industries employees are now unemployed.

According to a memo from the board of United sent at 12:42 a.m. Tuesday, employees were not to report to work today and the move is likely permanent.

"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."

Drivers were asked to immediately return equipment, inventory, and delivery documents for deliveries that had been completed to either the company's Winston-Salem, Verona, or Victorville, California location.

It is a stunning fall for a company that had become one of the largest furniture companies in the country.

The roots of United were planted in 1983 in north Mississippi with the opening of Comfort Furniture. In 2000, United Furniture was created with the merger of Comfort Furniture, Parkhill Furniture and United Chair. By December 2008, United Furniture received the exclusive licensing agreement as the U.S. manufacturer of Simmons Upholstery. In August 2015, Simmons Case Goods was added to the United Furniture product lines. That allowed United to include coordinated upholstery and case goods under the Simmons brand.

United purchased the Lane brand in 2017 from Heritage Home Group LLC for an undisclosed sum. Lane, which was founded in 1912 in Virginia and merged with Tupelo-based Action Industries in 1972, was once one of Northeast Mississippi's largest employers. Lane was a part of Furniture Brand International, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2013. Most of the assets of Furniture Brands was bought by KPS Capital Partners for $280 million, and in the aftermath, Heritage Home Group was formed.