South Carolina WARN report lists 4,489 job losses

 

The latest WARN report from the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce totals impending job losses among the state’s large employers at 4,489.

Notable among them are the permanent layoffs (with an asterisk) of 1,245 workers who make refrigerators and freezers in Anderson’s Elextrolux plant and the permanent closure of a Winnsboro mattress factory recently destroyed by fire. Healthcare SC LLC, operating as Mlily, burned Aug. 16. The former Mack Truck facility was Mlily’s first U.S. factory and, other than the WARN report, the company has not said what it will do next in South Carolina, if anything.

The Winnsboro plant remains prominent on the company’s website, but its career page says there are no job openings. The closure affects 254 jobs.

The Electrolux plant in Anderson produces refrigerators and freezers but the company says it will be retooled to make laundry appliances. The company plans to rehire and recommence production next year, but did not say how many of the lost jobs will come back.

Electrolux unveiled what it called a $250 million “highly efficient” new production line at the Anderson plant in April 2021 with a tour for the governor and media. In several announcements made since 2017, Electrolux said it was closing one of two Anderson plants to create one highly efficient plant. The company also closed a Minnesota factory to move freezer production to Anderson.

Nolan Pike, head of Electrolux North America, said in April 2021 the second plant in Anderson would be fully integrated into is upgraded facility by the end of that year.

The Anderson plant is one of the Sweden-based company’s most efficient and automated factories anywhere in the world and produced more units than any other, according to earlier statements by company officials. At full capacity, it could produce 3 million units annually.

Electrolux had closed one Anderson plant as planned but put it back into production when the expansion project bogged down late in 2019. Jonas Samuelson, president and CEO of the Sweden-headquartered company, said in a December 2019 conference call that the slowdown affected capacity companywide, but the efficiency of the new plant would make up for it by the second quarter of 2020.

The company’s new direction comes after the company announced a new partnership with China-based Midea Group.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act is intended to offer protection to workers and communities by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days priort to covered closing and mass layoffs, according to SC Works. It generally covers employers with 100 or more employees.

Some of the other layoffs and closures on the Aug. 28 roundup (pdf) include:

• Republic National Distributing Co. in Lexington County, impacting 451 workers because of permanent closure.
• DLH Solutions in Charleston County, permanent closure impacting 194.
• Smith Drug Co. in Spartanburg County, permanent closure impacting 195.
• Proactiv LLC in Aiken County, permanent closure impacting 133.
• Erev Supply Chain in Charleston County, permanent layoffs impacting 133.
• Milliken’s Cedar Hill Plant in Union County, permanent closure impacting 126.
• International Paper Co. in Georgetown County, permanent closure impacting 126.
• ABM Industry Groups LLC in Charleston County, permanent layoffs impacting 122.
• Thyssenkrupp Supply Chain Services in Spartanburg County, permanent layoffs affecting 110.

The Westin Hilton Head Island Resort and Spa in Beaufort County filed a WARN report for a temporary closure impacting 219 workers.

Sheila Long O’Mara, executive editor at Furniture Today, contributed to this story.

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