HANCOCK COUNTY, W.Va. — As many as a third of all the employees at Hancock County’s Fiesta Tableware Company, the former Homer Laughlin China Company, may lose their jobs permanently.
An unspecified number of layoffs were to begin as soon as Friday and continue until June 15, according to a company announcement.
A Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification or WARN Act notice of the layoffs at Fiesta Tableware Company in Newell was issued this week.
A similar notice of layoffs came out earlier this month for Hall China located in East Liverpool, Ohio.
When MetroNews reached Elizabeth McIlvain, company president and CEO, by phone on Friday morning, she said she would not be making any public comments about the layoff decisions and said no other company official was available for an interview either.
In March, brand names for Homer Laughlin and Hall China as well as the company’s foodservice business were sold.
Around that same time, manufacturing was halted temporarily in Newell because of COVID-19.
“Unfortunately, it was inevitable that selling the foodservice divisions would result in job losses, but right-sizing the company was necessary for its continued survival and its ability to provide jobs in our community,” McIlvain said in a previously-released statement.
“The COVID-19 emergency has made it very difficult for the company to plan and predict employment levels, but we want our employees to be well informed.”