Springfield, VT — Just a day after hiring a new chief financial officer, window and door manufacturer Jeld-Wen announced it will close it’s Springfield plant and merge operations with the company’s Ludlow location.
As a result, 80 employees were recently informed that they would be laid off.
“This morning when I was at the gas station going to work, there were some individuals that were not very happy with getting laid off,” said Cheater Alden. “Yeah, I guess they didn’t get that much of a notice especially with how the economy is now.”
Alden has lived in the Springfield area since the early 2000s and he has seen many locals make their way in and out of Jeld-Wen, including his sons. “My children worked there and they had issues with management. They’d bring people in with no experience and putting them in management positions and that doesn’t work.”
He did mention however, that the plant has served as a place of opportunity for local young men and women. “There’s always a lot of turnover. I know a lot of younger guys and 18 to 24 that my children and their friends. They’ve worked there and gone back. It’s a revolving door.”
Jeld-Wen has asked some employees to stay on to support the transition and expect to employ approximately 100 people at the Ludlow location once everything has been completed.
One former Jeld-Wen employee shared that his brother was a shift lead at the Springfield plant but got laid off and that the reaction within their family was pure devastation, but that he was “not surprised” after his own experience within the company.