Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
California: Obama Care forced managed health care provider Health Net to issue three mass layoff WARNs saying 2,122 health insurance related jobs will be eliminated on 26 June 2015! (and never mind the reports that Health Net is being sued for canceling their customer’s treatments, resulting in at least one death!) In Joshua Tree, Obama Care forced Hi-Desert Memorial Health Care to issue a mass layoff WARN saying 541 healthcare workers will become unemployed at the end of June! In Yucca Valley, Obama Care forced Hi-Desert Memorial Health Care to issue a layoff WARN saying at least 42 healthcare workers will become unemployed at the end of June! In Corona, Ireland based legal drugs maker Actavis issued a layoff WARN for July. In Modesto, Switzerland based chocolate maker Nestle issued a layoff WARN saying 56 people will become jobless by the end of June. The new Albertsons-Safeway issued more layoff WARNs saying another 21 Safeway employees will be laid off in June. In Duarte, Kroger issued a WARN saying they are shutting down their Ralph’s grocery store in July, 72 jobs lost. In San Diego, aerospace company and tax-sucker Hamilton Sundstrand issued a WARN saying they will shutdown at the end of June. In Mountain View, tech company Symantec continues to layoff people, this time they issued a WARN for June. In San Francisco, law firm Littler Mendelson issued a mass layoff WARN saying 113 people will become jobless in July! Santa Anna based Corinthian Colleges announced it will shutdown all remaining 28 campuses across the U.S.! It’s the result of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education which revealed the for-profit school was frauding its students! In Pleasant Hill, Gun Works shutdown. The owners said they were “just exhausted” from fighting a combination of unAmerican anti-2nd Amendment activists and politicians, greedy landlords who jacked up the rent, and new local anti-2nd Amendment laws. What automotive industry recovery? In Torrance, Toyota suddenly shutdown their Motor Credit Corporation, 941 jobs gone overnight!
Florida: In Saint Petersburg, finance and insurance company PSCU issued a WARN saying 53 people will be laid off in June. In Tampa, Mitt Romney wunderkind Staples issued a WARN saying they’re shutting down their Oak Fair Boulevard store between July and October, 47 jobs will be lost.
Illinois: In Old Irving Park, Mirabell German restaurant shutdown after 38 years of operations, apparently due to the death of the chef. After 43 years Joliet Area Suzuki Strings shutdown, blaming crashing student enrollment: “We just cannot financially sustain it anymore, our numbers have been gradually going down over the last four or five years. Last year, we were down to 40 students, and now we’re at about 25. You just can’t exist with that.”-Mary Smelser, founder
Indiana: What automotive industry recovery? Maker of cast iron engine blocks Pure Power Technologies shutting down its Indianapolis factory, 153 jobs lost by November!
Michigan: In Pittsfield, Pier 1 Imports shutdown. Local news reports said company administrators wouldn’t say why, and even ordered employees not to talk about it.
Minnesota: In Saint Paul, after five years Bars Bakery shutdown both of its stores. The owners say they need more family time. Minneapolis based retailer Target announced more layoffs, this time 140 corporate positions have been eliminated! Company administrators say they are trying to reduce expenses by $2-billion USD, that’s how bad they think the economy is going to get! In Cloquet, after 28 years Robert’s Home Furnishings shutdown. The owner said the bad economy was forcing him to “consolidate” everything to his store in Duluth.
Missouri: Grocery store chain Schnucks laid off 52 people, and eliminated eight open jobs, at its Saint Louis HQ. No explanation given. This comes weeks after administrators spent $1.69-million buying a property that they’ve rented for years. Administrators admitted they weren’t using the Saint Louis property for anything, and had no future plans for it!
New York: In Melville, NCO Financial Systems issued a shutdown WARN for their Extended Office Services, 28 jobs lost by July. In East Syracuse, General Super Plating finally notified state employment administrators that they shutdown back in March, 95 jobs lost. In NYC, Cambridge University Press issued a layoff WARN saying 67 of their 190 employees will be jobless by July. God refuses to stop his Museum of Biblical Art from shutting down, due to the American Bible Society selling off the building (those greedy Christians)! In Albany, the Brighter Choice Charter Middle School for Boys issued a WARN saying they’re shutting down in July, 37 jobs lost. The Brighter Choice Charter Middle School for Girls is also shutting down in July, 35 jobs lost. In Rochester, Durham School Services issued a WARN saying they’re shutting down in July, due to loss of contract, 142 jobs lost! In Webster, iconic Xerox issued a WARN saying they’re contracting out their Corporate Trucking & Cross Dock jobs in July, 35 in-house jobs lost. The new Obama Care medical device tax possibly forcing Ortho Clinical Diagnostics to hand over their Rochester operations to Nypro in July. They expect at least 105 of their 1-thousand jobs to be lost in the transfer! In Clifton Park, Berkshire Bank announced they will shutdown their 15 Park Avenue office in July.
North Carolina: In Winston-Salem, the owners of New Town Bistro and Bar said it will shutdown in May. It needs a major remodel and the owners said in this bad economy it wasn’t worth it. Also, after 60 years Towne Jewelers shutdown, the owners said “It’s time for a change.” The state Department of Transportation announced they will eliminate 81 jobs by June. It’s due to a new state law forcing taxpayer funded agencies to hire cheap-o contractors.
Ohio: After more than 40 years the West Chester Garden Center shutdown, due to competition from ‘Big Box’ stores. The owners gave a good example of why the economy sucks; they could barely afford to pay their employees $10 per hour, but admitted you can’t live in the area on $10 per hour without financial assistance. New Albany based Bob Evans Farms announced they will shutdown 20 restaurants! After spending millions of dollars trying to improve their restaurants, administrators decided that at least 20 of them still weren’t “meeting expectations.” They said most of the failed restaurants were outside Ohio. After numerous layoffs, the owners of the Toledo Free Press gave up and shutdown: “When you can’t pay your bills, you don’t keep going.”-Tom Pounds, publisher
Oklahoma: Oil rig maker Falcon Rigs now chapter 11 bankrupt busted, saying they can’t pay 192 creditors!
Pennsylvania: After more than 90 years (surviving the Great deflationary Depression) restaurant Cohick’s Trading Post shutdown. One of the co-owners turned evil greedy and actually sued the other co-owner to force them to sell the family business! Pittsburgh based US Steel announced another 9-thousand people will become jobless this year! That’s on top of the almost 3-thousand people they’ve already laid off since January!
South Dakota: In Sioux Falls, after 25 years Valentino’s restaurant shutdown. The owner said the restaurant business ain’t what it used to be: “This is such a demanding industry right now, and right now most people don’t realize we’re still ranked very high in the nation for restaurants per capita. So it’s gotten more challenging over the years, so it takes a lot. It takes a lot out of you.”-John Jones
Texas: Fort Worth based federal tax-sucker Bell Helicopter announced they will layoff 1-thousand 1-hundred people! It’s blamed on its tax-payer money-pit the continually (literally) crashing V-22 tilt-rotor assault plane. In Robstown, Maxum Petroleum issued a WARN saying 60 jobs will be lost in June. Soon to be a part of Halliburton, Baker-Hughes issued a WARN saying 21 people at their Alice 2 site will be laid off.
Utah: Cereal maker Kellogg Company (aka Kellogg’s) announced they are shutting down their Clearfield facility, at least 2-hundred jobs lost! It’s part of the company’s “efficiency and effectiveness program”. Idiotic and out-o-touch city administrators say they’re confident “Another company will come in right behind, and we’ll still continue to have a lot of employment here in Clearfield.”
Vermont: Concord High School will shutdown due to lack of funding caused by lack of students.
Virginia: In Carytown, the owners of ‘artesian retailer’ Modern Artifacts said they’re quitting in May, calling it a “lifestyle choice”.
Washington: Simpson Lumber shutting down three mills, 120 jobs lost due to sale of company to competitor in California!
24 – 26 April 2015: 27-thousand home care product jobs gone!
U.S. Food Crisis 29 April 2015: Albertsons Safeway to kill 800+ California jobs!
U.S. Food Crisis, April 2015: “…it hit me like a bag of rocks!”
Dumbing Down the United States, 1st Quarter 2015: “we’ve had a 66% decrease in our enrollment!”
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.”