Laid-off Falcon workers may find quick work

Staff report

LIBERTY

Township officials said they will be working to find new businesses to fill the Falcon Transport facility along Belmont Avenue.

The company’s sudden closure over the weekend left nearly 600 people without a job, but state reports suggest its former Ohio workers may not be unemployed for long.

Liberty’s Administrator Pat Ungaro said Falcon Transport’s closure is very frustrating for the township. He said an estimated 120 township residents had worked for the company.

“We have to work very hard and quickly to find a new business to fill that facility,” he said.

Trustee Arnie Clebone said the township will be reaching out to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber and other organizations to discuss marketing the facility to other businesses, with hopes of creating new job opportunities in the township.

“We have concerns, not just for the township but the whole region,” he said.

Chamber President James Dignan said his office reached out to Falcon Trucking but was unable to make contact as of Monday afternoon. The Vindicator also reached out to Falcon Transport Co. but was unable to reach a representative.

“We’re keeping up the pressure and trying to do what we can,” Dignan said. “It’s a tough time.”

As of Monday, Falcon Trucking had not submitted a mass layoff notice to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which is required at least 60 days before a mass layoff by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, department spokesman Bret Crow said Monday.

“We have reached out to Falcon, but haven’t heard back yet,” he said. “While we certainly are concerned for those impacted by this news, already we have had employers in the area contact us trying to get information to these workers about hiring opportunities.

“Truck drivers are a highly sought-after workforce.”

A civil lawsuit by Mary Chavez of Girard was filed in U.S. District Court Monday on behalf of other former Falcon employees. The lawsuit alleges that Falcon violated the WARN Act, says 21-WFMJ TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner.

An OhioMeansJobs report from March shows there are about 2,200 active online job notices seeking heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers — the fourth-highest in the Northeast JobsOhio Network. It also shows more than 30,000 ads posted between February and March sought those with commercial driver’s license certifications and more than 6,500 sought those with tractor-trailer skills.

Crow specified those numbers don’t include ads posted in print or on signs.

A WARN Act notice submitted Monday to the Tennessee labor department states Falcon’s Tennessee location will close permanently, leaving 70 non-union workers from that state out of a job.

A woman whose husband worked out of the La Vergne, Tenn., facility said her husband was one of many drivers who had not received pay in three weeks and were told Saturday the company was closing. The woman asked not to be identified.

A letter sent to the company’s Tennessee employees Saturday opened with: “As you know, for financial reasons and due to failure to obtain continued funding Falcon Transport Co. must cease operations. Unfortunately, as a result the operations at [La Vergne], where you are employed by Falcon, are closing and your position is expected to be eliminated, resulting in the loss of your employment.”

The letter goes on to state that a 60-day notice could not be given because of unforeseen business circumstances, including, “Falcon’s largest customer closing several operations.”

The letter does not identify that customer, but it is presumed to imply the General Motors Lordstown Assembly Complex, which shuttered in March. United Steelworkers business representative Jose Arroyo told The Vindicator in December, “As General Motors goes, so goes Comprehensive Logistics [and subsidiaries] Source Providers and Falcon Transport.”

The company also cited other circumstances for its closure, such as new work not materializing and a ransomware attack on the company’s computer system.

On social media, RCS Trucking and Freight Inc., which is based in Virginia, offered to assist any drivers who were stranded and unable to get home because of the unexpected shutdown.

Various trucking companies posted on Falcon Transport’s Facebook page, advertising trucking jobs.