American Fibers and Yarns Files Bankruptcy, Faces Shutdown

As an employee of American Fibers, I would like to let the people know of some tihngs that have been going on. During the meeting in which we were told the plant would be shutting down, we were told that there would be no severance, well we were not told that severance would only not be paid to about 300 of us 8 people get 212k between them, on top of that the top three guys in the company stand to gain large amounts of money depending on the total value received in the liquidation process. If they get just what they owe the bank Jake Mays the CEO gets 50k. Yet our vacation pay is included in the bankruptcy, does this sound fair? 11 people stand to get close to 450k while 300 don’t even get what they have earned through years of work, the xourt papers cliam this is to keep those 8 employees from finding other jobs during the process, well sorry why do you need an HR manager that works at neither of the plants, making 100k a year? Who is she going to be helping. The other 10 with their severance? When all operations ceased why do you need an IT guy to hang around to keep the systems running, he makes 98k a year plus gets severance for staying til the end, his salary wouldnt be enough to keep him, could hire a temp, it is not that complicated a system. So way to go, Jake, Roger, Jeff, Lisa, Robert, Robert, and theother 5 of you who are getting our vacation pay as severance. Hope you enjoy it while we are on foodstamps and unemployed. We have not received a raise in 9 years, well most of us haven’t The plant manager has gotten huge raises, in the past nine years his salary has increased 20k per year. From 50 to 70, really looking out for the employees there, some salaries 250 Jake, 160 Jeff, 150 roger, 100 lisa. Average worker at the plant 27k, cant afford a raise. Lisa , jeff, robert, all came in the past few years and were payed more than the previous people who held the postions. So each of these folks shoud pray for their souls as they are going to need it, if they were to die now they surely would burn. For more information Call Robert Henson at 456-8161, he will give you an explanation that makes it sound pefectly fine fo all this, but if you read the court documents yuo will see he is no better than Jake or the rest of them. I just thought someone might want a little more info than they were willing to give out.

Frank:

Who you gonna vote for for Congress in VA 5th district?

I am sure that Tom Perriello would work for jobs and benefits for those laid off.

thats bull

i kno that is sad everybody gettin laydoff and harley kennedy and doris garber losing there job is pretty sad

I am sure that there is even more than this that is not being shared with all of those who are loosing out in this situation. This company has shown over and over again that it never REALLY appreciated all of those employees that kept that place together all of those years. NOW, the ones that should be getting severence pay, has gotten fu*#ed with absolutley no pleasure.

SORRY!!!!

I have been an employee for 11 years, and it truely saddens me that someone that I held in very high regards and trusted lied to me and everyone else right to our faces in the meeting we had the day they told us the plant was closing, we were told and let me see if I can get this right, “I am in the same boat you all are”, and come to find out, he is not, he is getting a severance pay right along with all of the other big shots that probebly wouldnt know how to string up a line or probebly dont even know what the spin finish is used for ! If it wasnt for us “non priority creditors” the higher ups wouldnt have their severance and their bonus pay, we are the ones that actually did the work, making sure the lines ran, everything was in spec and so on, in there when it was 100 degrees outside and 110 in front of the lines, sweating to try to keep the lines running, no raise for 9 years, but i guarentee you our plant manager, Mike Apperson, BJ Armistead, and all the other higher ups got their bonuses and raises, they had to get something to be able to own jets and mercedes, and jaguars, now does that sound right to anyone else???…But the hole time we were bitching about a raise and were being told they couldnt afford it,big bonus checks were being sent to some of the above mentioned people, I might be wrong, but Im not to sure I am…I remember about 4-5 months ago Jake Mays made an apperance at the afton plant, and someone asked him about a raise, his response was , “Our pockets dont run that deep”Yea now we know why their pockets didnt run that deep…they had already had to much of our pay in their pockets..!…..You know even a small cost of living raise would have satisfied some of us.!..When we were told the plant was closing and NO severance was going to be paid, they worded that sentence JUST right…they just said NO severance, they didnt say “NO severance for anyone” We dont get severance pay, but yet they took all vacation time and no payout for that, but they get severance pay, where is the fairness in that…Now dont get me wrong, if I were a higher up, I would expect some kind of severance myself, and thats understandable, but dont sit in my face and straight up lie to me…be a man about it… I know some of you are sitting out there reading this and probebly saying shut up and go find another job, well its just not that easy, you give a company 11 years and try to do your best work even when you dont get a cost of living raise or a performance raise in over 9 years, and then have them treat you like this , its just un-nerving and IM SORRY if this offends anyone, but it’s the truth and others need to know that it didnt just happen over night or the last year, we have been struggling since we were layed off in 2001, mismanagement is what this all amounts too.! And on that I’m going to end by saying to all of my co-workers that I have worked with for the last 11 years I will truely miss most of you…and I wish all of you the best of luck in the future.

i kno it is sad ppl getting layed off here at american fibers and yarns that is pretty crazy doris garber and harley kennedy

Dillan what about the other 38 people that lost there job to ? Don’t you think that it is sad about them to ? from the way it sounds you know those 2 people but i know about 10 of them lets not single out just certain people lets feel bad for ALL of them.

kim i dont kno

First I was not Frank,
Second just read the bankruptcy files to get the info.
Look at 115 the scedule of whats owed, it includes all of our vacations,
Assets and Liabilities, 38 cents on the dollar breaks even, and the vacation is not being payed.

Jake Roger and Jeff will get their money. Maybe if their salariies were not enough “incentives” should have been offered before, and they would have done the work necessary to keep the place running.

I, like Bea, will miss the people I have worked with. It is a shame the Execs are looking out for themselves and not for the employees.

Now I believe Jake lied to us when he came up in May after taking over as CEO, he was very optimistic that things were going to turn around. Made no mention as the court documents did that they were trying to sell the company for a year, so either its a lie on the court documents or Jake directly lied.

I’ll close by saying to every one to give Robert the benefit of the doubt, it is possible when the meetings were held, he did not know he would be getting more money for staying until the end, I have not known him to directly lie to anyone, so he may not have known at the time.

It has been great getting to know all of you at the facility and again, I will miss working with you. I wish you all the best and hope you all find what you are looking for.

Harley, you are right about Robert and the benefit of the doubt, I maybe should have given it to him as much as he has given every employee at that plant the benefit of the doubt when needed, and you know the situations that have happened down there. So Robert if you read this Im sorry and shouldnt jump to conclusions, but I hope you look at things from our points of view also.

THIS GOES OUT TO ALL THE EMPLOYEES AT AMERICAN FIBERS AND YARNS . I WISH ALL OF YOU THE BEST AND HOPE FOR ALL THAT YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT IN LIFE . AND AS FOR ROBERT YOU WERE ALWAYS HONEST WITH ME AND I RESPECT YOU FOR THAT AND ALWAYS WILL . AS FAR AS THE INCENTIVE I WOULD NOT HAVE EXPECTED YOU TO NOT TAKE IT . YOU CAN BET YOUR LIFE THAT I WOULD HAVE. SO WITH THAT SAID GOOD LUCK TO ALL .

it was sad every single worker got laid off that was sad a couple days after i got back that would happen

now when the ceo came and told us bout to plant shutting down robert henson should get the benfit i mean come on shutting our plant down what in the world people getting laid off

it was all bainbridge i mean why do they have to shut us down i mean Jake Roger our ceo came and told us the plant had been bad for a week but bainbridge needs to keep thier doors locked robert henson karen quick lawancre montley and i kno people that were working at that plant that been shuting down robert henson i mean he looked sraight at jake rogers like keep our plant running

Jake Roger You Pissed alot of us off i mean laying off 2 many people are stuff is rotting in the lab i mean reopen that damn plant

MAN THAT SUCKS OUR JOB WENT TO INDIA I MEAN SOMEONE TO OPEN THAT PLANT BACK UP OR BUY IT AND OPEN BACK UP SO I CAN GET MY JOB BACK I HAD A GOOD JOB WORKIN FOR ROBERT HENSON JEFF CRIZTER JIMMY ALLEN HARLEY KENNEDY AND MARY MONTLEY AND I DIDNT KNOW INTIL I FOUND OUT THE PLANT WOULD BE SHUTTIMG DOWN INTIL I FOUND OUT FRM JIMMY ALLEN AND ROBERT HENSON I MEAN THAT WAS THE BEST JOB I HAD

I.P. logged