Shop-Vac to Cut 200 Jobs

Shop-Vac is a name that you may know, if you do a lot of vacuuming, or if you happen to work in a workshop setting. For those of you who are not familiar with the company here is a look at how the company has chosen to describe itself, “Shop-Vac® Corporation is the recognized world leader in wet/dry vacuum cleaners. For more than 40 years, Shop-Vac® Corporation has manufactured innovative, high quality vacuum cleaners and accessories. Shop-Vac® Corporation offers the most complete line of vacuum cleaners and accessories available for consumer, industrial and commercial applications. Customers associate the Shop-Vac® brand with dependability and the ability to handle the toughest cleaning jobs.”

Well it looks like the company is getting ready to cut back on a significant number of its staff, at least at one of its locations. The company is getting ready to give the pink slip to about 40 percent of the workers at its Williamsport facility. This loss, which will represent about 200 jobs lost in total when the cuts are made, is more than enough to qualify as mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines.

For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.” Under the terms of a mass layoff action the workers will be given several weeks of notice before they can be taken off of the payroll and being put onto the unemployment line.
Interestingly enough the people over at Shop-Vac did not put out a release about the job cuts that they are making. Instead their most recent release has been titled “Shop-Vac Introduces 25th Anniversary Blower Vac”, and it said the following, “25 years ago, Shop-Vac introduced the first vacuum with a detachable blower vac. Whether you need to vacuum sawdust from the shop floor or blow leaves off the deck, Shop-Vac’s 2 in 1 tool allows you to do both.”

Of course this is not the only company that is feeling the pinch of the hard times. For those of you who missed out on our job cuts at another manufacturer, Cinch Connectors, here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all, “Apparently the company hoped to be able to do all of that without 200 of its employees. The company is getting ready to close a factory in Green Country, Oklahoma, that is more than enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines.”