On Nov. 7, doors and windows manufacturer JELD-WEN laid off 152 employees from its manufacturing facility in Grinnell, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) issued on the Iowa Workforce Development website.
A statement from External Communications Manager Katie Pylipow Lykins to The S&B said that a “small reduction in force” at the windows plant had been announced on Oct. 8.
JELD-WEN is headquartered in North Carolina, but has facilities across North America and Europe, employing 18,000 people in total. An April 11 press release has denoted company-wide plans to streamline production and offerings of window products.
Jennifer Erdman, operations manager at IowaWORKS and Title I representative for Ottumwa and Marshalltown, said that the state’s Rapid Response Team — which coordinates responses to sudden layoffs and closures — had initially received the WARN notice from JELD-WEN.
“We set up an employer information meeting … and outlined all services that they thought they were needing,” she said. “We planned that we would have an English and a Spanish worker information meeting, and those were held on Oct. 25.”
Erdman said that workers were informed at the meetings of available services from IowaWORKS and health and retirement programs with the Department of Labor. Representatives from the Iowa Valley Community College system were also in attendance.
“Most employers want to do anything that they can to make sure that the affected workers get re-employed as soon as possible,” she said.
“We value the contributions of our employees and have provided those affected with a competitive separation package and outplacement services to help provide a smooth transition,” wrote Pylipow Lykins. “Affected employees can also apply for any other open roles in Grinnell locations and across the company.”
According to Erdman, JELD-WEN had been able to find new positions for 54 of the affected workers. A Dislocated Workers Survey had also been emailed to affected workers for the Rapid Response Team to better understand their needs and render additional assistance as necessary.
Rachael Kinnick, president and CEO of the Grinnell Area Chamber of Commerce, said that layoffs at this scale are uncommon locally, with this being a more significant one in recent history. JELD-WEN, a member business, was also offered support from the Chamber of Commerce.
“We support our members in a variety of ways. In this particular case, we felt a strong role … was to help impacted employees find alternate employment,” she said. “Hopefully in our community, but if not, we recognize that we just want to do what’s best for those employees.”
On Nov. 1, a job fair was held at Iowa Valley Grinnell for the remaining 98 workers.
Organized by Iowa Workforce Development and the Chamber of Commerce, Erdman said that 17 area employers were present, while Kinnick said that a team from JELD-WEN had also been on site to assist with transitions to a new job.
“They have relationships with many of these people, and they want to see the best for them,” she said. “Unfortunately, it just didn’t work to keep them on staff.”
“While these decisions are difficult, we are taking steps to simplify and strengthen the company, and meet future demand against the current labor force, which includes optimizing our operations network to better compete in the market we serve,” wrote Pylipow Lykins. “While decisions that impact people are never easy, we make them only after careful consideration and with the understanding that our actions today are necessary to position JELD-WEN for long-term success.”
