The owner of an American furniture company has reportedly ‘disappeared’ after firing 2,700 employees over text and email last week. All employees of United Furniture Industries were told they were being let go with immediate effect just days before Thanksgiving.
Now, the New York Post has reported that owner David Belford has gone incommunicado after sparring with the company’s board and bankers over whether to file for bankruptcy.
“No one has heard from the owner. He’s not returning anyone’s phone calls. It’s such a horrible situation,” one source with knowledge of the situation told The Post.
Some former employees of United Furniture Industries say Ohio-based Belford has flown to Paris after axing thousands of workers.
Also read: Company fired its employees while they were sleeping
Philip Hearn, an attorney representing some 600 laid off employees, said that the company had decided to file for bankruptcy protection on November 20. Belford, however, refused to go ahead with the plan the next day.
On November 21, employees of the furniture company received text messages and emails informing them they had been laid off with immediate effect. Reports say debt had been piling on the company.
The abrupt layoffs drew backlash from disgruntled employees. “It is not fair to the laborers who seriously worked so hard to be blindsided like this,” one employee told FreightWaves. “It is not fair to the mom who just had a baby to wonder if she even has health insurance to cover it. It is not fair to the cancer patient in the midst of chemo about how to pay for her treatments.”
Belford, a multi-millionaire, lives in an affluent neighbourhood of Gahanna, Ohio.
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