Tha Washington State Employment Security Department received a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) from Confluent, a company listed on the Fortune 500 List of the largest U.S. companies, that they will be laying off 300+ employees when they close their Federal Way, WA location effective July 31, 2018.
Confluent mentioned in their May 9th earnings call that the company plans to part with it’s customer care businesses as part of the company’s future direction: “the standalone transactional call center work (is) something that we intend to divest.”
The Confluent website still lists openings in nearby Washington communities on their Careers page. Staff from the local Employment Security rapid response team and WorkSource center will perform outreach to employees of the organization to ease the transition.
Menzies Aviation has notified the WA Employment Security Department that they will be laying off 63 workers in the state effective July 8th. Menzies Aviation provides ground support at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The notification of this planned layoff does not specifiy what type of workers are being laid off. Menzies provides ground handling services at Sea-Tac, including baggage and ramp handling, passenger handling cabin appearance and de-icing services.
Menzies made the news in 2005 when, one week after the union rejected an offered contract, Alaska Airlines outsourced 472 baggage handling jobs to Menzies.
The decision came a week after union workers in Seattle and Alaska overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer that included pay and benefit cuts but also a guarantee of four years without outsourcing. The airline had warned since January that it might outsource the jobs if no agreement could be reached with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 143. – The Seattle Times, May 14, 2005
The reason for the current round of layoffs was not clear at the time of this writing.
A spokesman for Jorgensen Forge said the owners see “much more opportunity in redeveloping this land.” Some of the 110 union employees at Jorgensen Forge have worked there for decades and aren’t sure what comes next.
After 78 years in business, a local manufacturer that forges metals for Boeing, the U.S. Navy and other big customers is shutting down so its property can be sold and redeveloped.
Jorgensen Forge, which operates a 22-acre facility next to Boeing Field in Tukwila, just over Seattle’s southern border, said Wednesday it has stopped taking new orders and will wind down operations over the next six months or so.
All 110 union employees at the plant are being laid off and were informed of the closure on Wednesday.
“Some people are very worked up, very upset,” said Matthew Steffen, a Jorgensen manager. “There are people that have worked here their entire adult lives, 30-40 years, and don’t really know any other place.”
