The Missouri Career Center in Joplin said it is reaching out to employees recently laid off from their jobs at the Fairview Greenhouse in Carthage.
Leslie Abram, coordinator of the Joplin office's Rapid Response Team, said the Career Center only recently learned about the layoff that she understood to involve about 30 employees.
She said the Rapid Response meeting is set for 10 a.m., Friday June 27, at the Missouri Career Center office, 730 S. Wall Ave., in Joplin.
"We were told it involved about 30 people, but we don't know if they were full-time or part-time employees," Abram said. "It apparently happened in May, but we just found out about it."
Neither Claude Newport, general manager at the Fairview Greenhouse, nor Margaret Hartman, owner of the greenhouse, returned messages left seeking comment on Friday during business hours.
Abram said Rapid Response meetings are conducted for groups of workers who lose their jobs by no fault of their own. The workers are presented with information about filing for unemployment insurance, job-search assistance and the various services available to them at the Career Center.
All former employees of Fairview Greenhouse are encouraged to attend. If they are not able to attend, however, they may call Abram, Rapid Response coordinator, at 417-206-1717 and request that information be mailed to them.
Voluntary cutbacks
The tough economy and a slowdown in vehicle sales was also hitting another large Carthage employer.
Jason Gorham, with the human resources department at Leggett and Platt, said employees at Flex-O-Lators in Carthage were voluntarily cutting back their hours as the slowdown in the sales of cars, trucks and SUVs works its way down the supply chain.
Gorham said the plant employs about 210 people and makes components for the seats and the lumbar supports in the seats in vehicles.
"We are doing a small number of reductions in the number of hours worked by employees, but we haven't had to make any lay-offs at this point," Gorham said.
"Looking forward, the auto business is struggling, GM and Ford are having trouble selling SUVs, so we don't know what's going to happen. It's a matter of evaluating our inventory day to day and week to week."
Gorham said the cutback in hours has affected 20 or 30 employees and has been voluntary s far.
He said temporary layoffs are still an option if demand continues to shrink, but the company is working to avoid that if at all possible.
