It’s been nearly three weeks since United Furniture Industries of Tupelo, Mississippi, abruptly ceased operations, firing more than 2,700 employees and instructing its truck drivers to return all inventory and delivery documents to its UFI facilities in the U.S.
Frustration is mounting among brokerages and trucking companies that have also been affected by the shutdown because no one at the furniture company is answering their calls or emails about how to retrieve their goods, including 53-foot trailers full of inventory, that remain impounded at UFI facilities.
A source familiar with the chaotic situation at UFI told FreightWaves that a group was formed earlier this week “to develop a process to help trucking companies and freight brokers retrieve their goods and trailers.”
One source said some trucking companies have been able to recover their trucks or trailers from the gated UFI facilities by calling a phone number posted on signs at the gated facilities. However, the source was unable to provide the phone number for frustrated UFI customers to call.
FreightWaves will update the story about the plan in the works to help UFI customers retrieve their freight or trailers locked in UFI facilities as more information becomes available.
Jeff Henderson, senior vice president of Ryan Transportation Services, a subsidiary of Shamrock Trading Corp. of Overland Park, Kansas, has two loads valued at around $100,000, including a sealed load of food-grade material, that are stuck at UFI facilities in Tupelo and Amory, Mississippi.
He and others haven’t had any communication with UFI officials since reading about the mass layoffs on Nov. 21.
“This is unprecedented — we’re in total silence here,” Henderson told FreightWaves. “We’ve had a long history with them in the last year. We’ve given them 112 loads in the last 365 days.”
UFI Transportation, the company’s over-the-road division, relied on backhauls of brokered freight as a revenue source after making furniture deliveries across the U.S.
During his 23-year career as a freight broker, Henderson said he’s seen his share of shutdowns, but he’s always had an opportunity to retrieve his goods — until now.
“In the past, we were instructed that another carrier would be delivering our loads or we were given the opportunity to cross-dock it ourselves — we’ve heard nothing at this point,” Henderson said. “They were a longtime carrier for us.”
Lawsuits mount as UFI remains silent
A Parrish, Alabama, company, Atkins Trucking, filed a proposed class-action lawsuit on Monday against Wells Fargo Bank, Wells Fargo & Co. and Focus Management Group USA, as well as Security Associates of Mississippi.
The suit claims Wells Fargo Bank, Wells Fargo & Co. and Focus Management Group USA have a financial interest in UFI and “have taken physical possession of the facilities owned by United Furniture Industries.”
Jack Simpson, an attorney for Langston & Lott of Booneville, Mississippi, which filed the suit, alleges Atkins and others have been “wrongly denied access to their commercial property” at the direction of Wells Fargo and Focus Management, which hired Security Associates of Mississippi to provide security services at the facilities owned by UFI.
The suit states Wells Fargo, which is one of UFI’s lenders, and Focus Management are instructing security not to allow Atkins and other trucking companies and brokers onsite to retrieve their commercial property that doesn’t belong to UFI.
“This baseless lawsuit detracts from the important work being done to support UFI’s former employees and vendors, which is the primary focus,” a spokesperson for Wells Fargo said in a statement to FreightWaves. “We disagree with the claims made by the individual in the lawsuit.”
The lawsuit is seeking injunctive relief, not monetary damages, to prohibit Wells Fargo from denying Atkins and others “access to their commercial property.”
Simpson’s firm is also representing Toria Neal, a resident of Lee County, Mississippi, who worked for UFI for more than eight years and alleges in her proposed class-action complaint that the company violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and did not provide at least 60 days’ written notice of a pending closure.
Former UFI employees have filed at least four WARN Act complaints.
Besides the Atkins Trucking suit, a Texas-based transportation company, LinQ Transport, is suing UFI for more than $1 million after it’s been unable to recover more than 44,000 pounds of copper wire that is being held at a UFI facility in Lee County, Mississippi. UFI shuttered operations while the LinQ load was in transit. Drivers were instructed to return to the nearest UFI facility instead of delivering the freight.
As of publication, UFI and its affiliates have not filed for bankruptcy protection.
This is a developing story.
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