Gildan Yarns submitted a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice on 10 October to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, with intentions to permanently shut down one of its establishments located in Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina on 8 December 2023, according to local news reports.
The WARN notice shows that 258 jobs would be affected, however local news publication Business North Carolina claims that despite the workers not being represented by a union, transfer rights do exist with the workers being offered the opportunity to transfer to other nearby operations in Salisbury and Mocksville.
Geneviève Gosselin, director and global communications & corporate marketing at Gildan told JustStyle that the company's decision to close the plant is "part of the company’s plan to continue to balance production and inventory levels to drive an efficient and competitive manufacturing platform."
Gosselin added: "While the Salisbury ring spinning plant will be closed following this reorganisation, we are offering the vast majority of impacted employees the opportunity to be transferred to one of our other yarn-spinning facilities in North Carolina, primarily our ring spinning facility located in Mocksville."
Gosselin continued to say that retaining as many employees as possible is important to Gildan which is why the company is providing relocation bonuses and transportation services from Salisbury to Mocksville for those who wish to transfer to the Mocksville location.
"So far, the response from employees has been positive and the majority of them have expressed interest in transferring to one of our other locations. We hope that interest will continue to grow in the coming weeks," said Gosselin.
Local broadcaster WBTV adds that in accordance with the WARN Act, the city manager of Salisbury NC, the Mayor of Salisbury NC, and the county manager of Rowan County NC have all been notified of this plant closing.
Local news publication Independent Tribune reports that as of the end of March this year Gildan Yarns had more than 500 employees at its yarn-production plant in Mocksville as part of expanding domestic production capacity for new and existing products for its Gildan Yarns division.
The Montreal-based company confirmed in July that one of its major production plants in Choloma, Honduras, would close as part of wider plans to “balance its apparel sewing production".
