The layoffs of approximately Olam Foods & Ingredients to Hire 275 Workers by Year-End at Firebaugh Plant is part of a series of nearly 60 closures or mass layoffs announced so far this year in California’s central San Joaquin Valley.
Some of the actions that companies have notified national or local authorities about affect only a few employees at individual sites; others – including the closure of the Olam plant that produces dried onions, parsley and other products – affect dozens or even hundreds of workers.
Employers are required under federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, laws to notify the state Employment Development Department, local city or county governments and local workforce development boards of large-scale layoffs or facility closings at least 60 days in advance.
In Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties, WARN notices for nearly 770 workers had effective layoff dates in the first half of 2024; about 955 are scheduled for July and through the end of 2024, according to notices received to date by the state.
Expired contracts
The largest layoff announced in the first half of the year was at the National Guard’s 1106th Theater Aviation Support Maintenance Group, where Amentum notified the layoff of 113 workers, including aircraft mechanics, painters, technicians and others, due to the loss of a new aircraft maintenance support contract at the base. The previous contract ended June 28.
Amentum’s WARN notice, however, said a new contractor for aircraft maintenance at the base was to contact the affected workers about possible job opportunities. Chanel Mann, a spokeswoman for Amentum, told the Bee this week that all but two of the employees were hired by the new small-business contractor; the other two remained with Amentum and were transferred to another location.
Expired or reduced contracts are also causing other significant layoff notices, including:
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Pro Youth, a Visalia nonprofit, filed a WARN notice in May announcing that it planned to lay off 247 of its employees, including academic enrichment specialists, on Aug. 15 “due to the Visalia Unified School District’s reduction of Pro Youth services at its school sites where the terminated Pro Youth employees work.”
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ABM General Services, a commercial cleaning company, has laid off 114 of its employees after Amazon terminated its contract with the company for services at the online retailer’s warehouse on South Orange Avenue in south Fresno. The contract termination took effect March 19.
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Wellpath, a Nashville-based health care company that had contracts with four Tulare County correctional facilities. The June 30 contract expiration resulted in the layoff of 100 employees, including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and other health care professionals.
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Triple Canopy, a subsidiary of security company Constellis, held a contract to provide Federal Protective Service security services at federally owned and leased offices throughout California. The expiration of that contract resulted in the layoff of 203 employees, including 37 at 12 locations in Fresno.
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The July 1 expiration of the California Community Access Foundation’s contract to provide telephone services to deaf and disabled customers has led to layoffs of workers at 10 sites across the state, including 10 workers in Fresno.
Other major layoffs
Earlier this year, 91 delivery workers at 17 Pizza Hut franchises in the Valley were laid off. Brian Thompson, president of franchise companies CalPac Pizza, CalPac Pizza II and Southern PacPizza, said in WARN notices that the companies had “made the business decision to eliminate first-party delivery services and, as a result, the elimination of all delivery worker positions” at the restaurants by mid-February. These include Pizza Hut locations in Fresno, Hanford, Lemoore, Madera, Los Banos, Merced, Atwater, Porterville, Tulare and Visalia.
The franchisee’s decision to cut restaurant delivery services comes as California’s minimum wage is set to rise to $20 an hour for fast-food chain workers and is part of a statewide effort to reduce the number of delivery workers by more than 1,200. The move means Pizza Hut customers must use smartphone app services such as Uber Eats or Doordash for pizza delivery.
Other layoffs disclosed in WARN notices include:
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The February closure of Visalia-based Country Club Mortgage resulted in the layoff of 105 workers at offices in Visalia, Fresno, Selma, Hanford and Exeter.
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In Tulare, the closure of Ruan’s Transportation Center on Blackstone Street in January cost 92 employees, most of them truck drivers, their jobs. Ruan also closed its center in Turlock, where 65 employees were laid off.
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The total closure of the 99 Cents Only Stores chain this year resulted in the loss of more than 1,000 employees in California, including 41 — mostly cashiers and stockists — at the company’s Los Angeles store. The closure of the chain’s operations was scheduled to be completed by early June.
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Western Power Sports is closing its South Fig Avenue warehouse in Fresno. Layoffs began earlier this year and will continue through mid-August, resulting in the furlough of 41 workers.
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The reduction in labor and delivery services at Adventist Health Tulare in June resulted in the layoff of 22 employees, including 16 registered nurses and obstetrics technicians.
Still to come
A decision taken earlier this year by Ruiz Foods to close its production plant in Tulare The move will affect 215 workers by mid-September. The company said in June that the plant, which produces frozen foods, was too small and would be too costly to upgrade to meet its needs. Ruiz Foods will continue to operate its Dinuba production plant.
Almost 180 workers at the Cargill Meat Solutions plant Employees at South Fig Avenue in southwest Fresno will be laid off by early August, according to a notice from WARN. The layoffs follow the takeover of the plant by Hanford-based Central Valley Meat Co. The plant will remain open with about 700 workers after the layoffs.
