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Former employee sues United Furniture Industries over mass firing

WARN Act suit alleges UFI violated federal law

A former employee filed suit seeking class action status, alleging UFI violated the federal WARN Act. (Photo Credit: Shutterstock)

A former United Furniture Industries employee claims the furniture manufacturer, headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi, violated federal law by failing to give 60 days’ notice of its abrupt shutdown to nearly 2,700 employees and truck drivers, who found themselves without jobs two days before Thanksgiving.

Former UFI employees, operating under the Lane Furniture brand name, were blindsided early Tuesday morning after receiving either an email or text message instructing them not to report to work that day because their jobs were being immediately terminated “due to unforeseen business circumstances.”

As of publication Wednesday, Todd Evans, CEO of UFI, failed to respond to FreightWaves’ requests seeking comment about what precipitated the mass firing.

Toria Neal, a resident of Lee County, Mississippi, who worked for UFI for more than eight years, 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.


In the suit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, Neal claims she and potentially thousands of other United employees received an email and/or text message “that it was terminating all of its employees effective immediately” just minutes before midnight on Monday.

The message from UFI stated that the “terminations were expected to be permanent and that all benefits would be terminated without provision of COBRA.”

Langston & Lott, based in Booneville, Mississippi, filed the first class action against United Furniture Industries, Inc., alleging it violated the WARN Act when terminating all 2,700 of its employees.

“Under the WARN Act, the employees of United Furniture were entitled to either a 60-day notice or 60 days of severance pay — neither of those were provided,” Jack Simpson, attorney for Langston & Lott, told FreightWaves.  “If appointed class counsel, we look forward to vigorously investigating the actions of United Furniture and seeking as much compensation the terminated employees are legally entitled to.”


Thousands fired by email, text

“At the instruction of the board of directors of United Furniture Industries Inc. and all subsidiaries, we regret to inform you that 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,” according to the statement to employees obtained by FreightWaves.

One former employee said generations of her family had worked for Lane Furniture before United Furniture Industries bought the furniture manufacturer from Heritage Home Group in 2017.

She said nothing prepared her and other family members who worked for the company that they would be fired via email or would no longer have health insurance.

“We would go over to our friends’ houses and say, ‘Hey, that chair or that piece of furniture was made at our plant,’” the former employee, who didn’t want to be named for fear of retaliation, told FreightWaves. “We really took pride in our work — and this is how we are treated.”

Some employees questioned the timing of UFI’s mass firing just before Thanksgiving.

However, over-the-road truck drivers for furniture delivery division UFI Transportation who are currently making deliveries “will be paid for the balance of the week,”  the company stated in the letter to workers.

According to the UFI statement, it directs truckers with loads to “immediately return equipment, inventory and delivery documents for those deliveries that have been completed to one of the following locations: Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Verona, Mississippi; or Victorville, California.”

According to the Federal Motor Safety Administration’s SAFER website, UFI has 40 power units and 42 drivers. 


In July, Pitchbook listed that the company had nearly 3,000 employees working in its 18 plants and distribution centers in North Carolina, Mississippi and California, as well as in Vietnam.

Another former employee said she was aware the company was experiencing some difficulties but had no clue UFI would fire its entire workforce.

In late July, the furniture manufacturer closed its plants in Winston-Salem and High Point, North Carolina, resulting in more than 270 workers losing their jobs, according to WARN Act notices filed at the time with the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

Another 220 jobs were eliminated in late July at the company’s plant in Amory, Mississippi. “The new leadership had been working extremely hard to put new processes in place,” the former employee told FreightWaves. “There was too much effort being put in for anyone to really know they would close overnight.”

While there was no communication from UFI executives as to what led to its abrupt closure, former employees did receive an update message late Tuesday about retrieving their belongings. 

“As soon as the property manager can provide a safe and orderly process for former employees to come and gather their belongings, they will do so,” UFI/Lane Corporate Communications said in an email, which was obtained by FreightWaves. “We are not certain of the timeframe for this but will communicate proactively.”

Retrieving their belongings is the last thing on former workers’ minds, one former employee said.

“It is not fair to the laborers who seriously worked so hard to be blindsided like this,” the employee told FreightWaves. “It is not fair to the mom who just had a baby to wonder if she even has health insurance to cover it. It is not fair to the cancer patient in the midst of chemo about how to pay for her treatments.”

This is a developing story. 

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15 Comments

  1. SCOTT ALLEN

    Obviously, Mr. Richard M. Rehmer above does not have a clear understanding of how Unions come to the decision to strike.
    “A record number of eligible BLET members participated in the ratification vote with 53.5% voting in favor and 46.5% voting against.”
    That is how the decision is made for a possible strike. NOT Union leaders hoarding all the dues and lining their pockets. That’s 70s Jimmy Hoffa BS. Those hard earned dues will NOW help the strikers through lean times to come IF the strike occurs.
    The Union leadership is taking care of its members representing their votes!
    Richard does not realize that the December 9th ultimatum is for the benefit of the opposition to rethink their offer and to d decide if they are willing to face public backlash during holiday season travel and transportation of needed goods and services around the United States.
    Richard could not possibly be a card carrying Union member and is making a hack comment without any understanding of the origin and purpose of unions.
    I speak as a former IBEW member. My Union protected my ass from mass layoffs, gave me insurance, a common purpose and one hell of a paycheck. AND IBEW did not go around vilifying businesses we contracted with. A healthy business /Union relationship is paramount to success for all. And I’ll tell you, Union workers take great pride in their work! I cannot speak for non union workers but I do read daily how non Union workers dislike how they are treated by management.
    Naysayers in this feed have little understanding of the difficult negotiations that occur during contracts and renewals. Union leadership are no more aholes than business management across from them. Both sides are across the table from one another to gasp! make money TOGETHER! Both sides for the most part are there in good faith working for a resolution satisfactory to both parties. Union members and leadership do not want to waste time striking AND management does not want to shutter business because… they want to make money.
    So Richard M Rehmer, get your facts straight first! You imply the strike is going to happen. No! again this process encourages both sides to come to the table again with a better offer agreeable to both parties.
    And the possibility exists that Mr. Rehmer is a union member. Perhaps he is one of the minority voters who did not want to strike. If so, give up your membership sir and go your own way against employers.
    NEVER believe anyone who demonizes one side or the other. ALL parties want to make money, pay there bills and come to an amicable solution.
    Scott D. Allen former IBEW

  2. Eric

    Can’t people discuss the news without blaming one political party or another? UFI deserves to be sued due to how they handled this mess. Doesn’t sound like the company’s management is very forthcoming with reasons or details (smart if you’re expecting to be sued). The picture will start to become clear as investigations and law suits move forward. The shut down is probably just another case of mismanagement combined with declining sales and increased costs, but I’ll bet upper management still got very generous severance packages, while employees will have to wait out the lawsuits to receive any sort of compensation, and it won’t be nearly as generous.

  3. free

    In the second sentence of the WARN Act it says: WARN makes certain exceptions to the requirements when layoffs occur due to unforeseeable business circumstances, faltering companies, and natural disasters.

    In the first sentence of the text that fired everyone it says: “At the instruction of the board of directors of United Furniture Industries Inc. and all subsidiaries, we regret to inform you that due to unforeseen business circumstances…”

    So much for the WARN Act helping them.

  4. Richard M Rehmer

    Funny more unions might ask the railroad workers how well the union negotiators had their members in mind and why there is a strike going to happen on Dec 9th. Union leaders take good care of themselves at the expense of the membership

Comments are closed.

Clarissa Hawes

Clarissa has covered all aspects of the trucking industry for 16 years. She is an award-winning journalist known for her investigative and business reporting. Before joining FreightWaves, she wrote for Land Line Magazine and Trucks.com. If you have a news tip or story idea, send her an email to [email protected].