Tweet
Evergreen International Airlines Inc. — key remaining component of Evergreen International Aviation, following the sale of its helicopter division — has announced to employees by voicemail that it will be closing at the end of the month, according to current and former employees.
Calls seeking confirmation from the company were not returned.
Evergreen International Airlines on Friday issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, notice to state officials stating that it “will end all operations” effective Nov. 30.
The WARN Act requires employers to alert community leaders of mass layoffs. The Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development, which processes WARN notices, said the number of Evergreen workers to be laid off was 131.
But in a statement posted on the Evergreen International Airlines website on Friday, the company denied that a closure was immient: “While Evergreen generally does not comment on market rumor or conjecture, rumors that a decision has been made to cease operations at this time are false.”
Both the parent company and its subsidiaries, including its main air cargo subsidiary, have been straining under a massive debt burden and a stream of state and federal lawsuits. Many of the suits have resulted in adverse judgments and liens designed to enforce the terms.
The closure will eliminate most of the parent company’s remaining workforce. However, it will not affect employees of the helicopter division, now owned and operated by Erickson Air-Crane; the non-profit museum complex across the highway; or, at least in any direct way, the company’s agricultural or ground support subsidiaries.
Former employees said the air cargo arm, which once ferried freight around the world in a fleet of 747s, has been laying off employees to the point where it is already down to a skeleton force. They said this remaining employees are due for lay off as well at the end of November.
Calls seeking confirmation from the company were not returned.
Evergreen International Airlines on Friday issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, notice to state officials stating that it “will end all operations” effective Nov. 30.
The WARN Act requires employers to alert community leaders of mass layoffs. The Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development, which processes WARN notices, said the number of Evergreen workers to be laid off was 131.
But in a statement posted on the Evergreen International Airlines website on Friday, the company denied that a closure was immient: “While Evergreen generally does not comment on market rumor or conjecture, rumors that a decision has been made to cease operations at this time are false.”
Both the parent company and its subsidiaries, including its main air cargo subsidiary, have been straining under a massive debt burden and a stream of state and federal lawsuits. Many of the suits have resulted in adverse judgments and liens designed to enforce the terms.
The closure will eliminate most of the parent company’s remaining workforce. However, it will not affect employees of the helicopter division, now owned and operated by Erickson Air-Crane; the non-profit museum complex across the highway; or, at least in any direct way, the company’s agricultural or ground support subsidiaries.
Former employees said the air cargo arm, which once ferried freight around the world in a fleet of 747s, has been laying off employees to the point where it is already down to a skeleton force. They said this remaining employees are due for lay off as well at the end of November.
Comment