NEWTON — La-Z-Boy has laid off nearly two-thirds of the workers at its downtown manufacturing plant after the company announced it was closing upholstery manufacturing facility Thursday.
The permanent layoff will affect about 300 at La-Z-Boy South, a facility that has been in operation since 1960.
Danny Simoneau, general manager of La-Z-Boy South, said 170 workers will still be working in the downtown Newton facility working mostly in its leather cutting and sewing operation. The cuts will not affect La-Z-Boy's shipping facility on Hwy. 15 in Newton or its facility in Philadelphia, Miss.
In a press release Thursday afternoon, La-Z-Boy said the 300 positions were among 850 jobs that were being cut across the company due to the drop in demand from the coronavirus outbreak, that forced a complete shutdown of the company since March 27.
Since then the demand has not yet recovered.
“Before the pandemic, we were working six days a week to keep up with the orders we had, but now, the demand is at an all-time low,” Simoneau said. “This is something that we’ve never seen before. The COVID-19 outbreak has really hurt our economy.”
While most of the workers are from Newton County, Simoneau said they have attracted workers from Lauderdale, Scott, Jasper, Leake, Smith, Clarke and Neshoba counties.
“Today was the hardest day that I’ve had in my time here, but it wasn’t as hard as it was on those 300 workers,” Simoneau said Thursday. “This is affecting employees that have been with us for 51 years all the way to new hires.”
It’s been especially difficult on Simoneau because he didn’t get an opportunity to meet with all 300 employees prior to the announcement. Due to the coronavirus impact, they were not able to have a meeting with all workers.
On Friday, Simoneau and department heads were meeting with workers to help answer questions about the decision and to inform them of assistance they can receive for unemployment or other retraining services.
Newt Ishee, director of Mid-Mississippi Development District, said while he was disappointed with the layoffs, he is encouraged that La-Z-Boy will have a presence in Newton.
“We will still have around 150 to 200 workers that will be working here in Newton,” Ishee said. “We are staying hopeful that maybe some of those jobs could be added back once demand returns, as the economy continues to recover.”
Ishee said it’s likely that many of the 300 workers were already receiving unemployment benefits. He said those benefits will continue.
“The federal unemployment benefits will continue through the end of June,” Ishee said. “They can also apply for state benefits, and they will continue after the federal benefits end.
“And we will also be providing assistance to those who would like to receive retraining for other jobs or other assistance we can to help the workers.”
