According to the union that represents more than 75 per cent of the workers at Lehigh Southwest Cement’s plant north of Redding, California, USA, Lehigh Cement made the decision to lay off 39 workers on Friday, 9 September 2016.
Curt Aderhold, president of the union, said an email was sent out on Thursday evening to inform of the layoffs. Junior employees were said to be immediately let go. The email cited a catastrophic breakdown of equipment at the plant as the catalyst. Mr Aderhold said, “It's very disturbing, because this catastrophic failure they talk about has been going on for about a year. … We told them about it, that there was a problem.” He went on to discuss how he is disappointed that those affected were not given the courtesy of seven days’ notice. “They are using that it was an emergency, but they knew this was going on for a year.”
