63 year-old says the window manufacturer laid them off without warning, but deducted healthcare premiums from last paycheck.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: December 4, 2024
Host: The week before Thanksgiving, amid what still looks like a boom for window and door makers, local manufacturer PGT Innovations laid off 225 workers in Tampa, and then another 150 in Venice. The layoffs came after PGT was taken over by Miter Brands, a Pennsylvania-based company. Johannes Werner talked to one Venice worker who says he and his wife lost their jobs the same day.
Johannes Werner: Howard Hufford had been with PGT since 2021, and his wife since 2022. He began working in the frames department, but that was eventually moved to another plant in Fort Myers. He then switched to single-hung windows, and aluminum frames.
This fall, though, he was put on what’s called a SWAT team. When housing construction slows in the north, he says, the plant managers shuffled workers into clean-up jobs that have to be done quickly when trucks leave. But there was no indication anything was not OK, Hufford says.
Howard Hufford: Everything was going fine. They’re telling us we’re doing a great job. No plans to send us anywhere. So the people that didn’t want to do that, they went to other departments. And they kept telling us, “Oh, you’re doing a great job, you’re doing a great job,” we’re not going anywhere. They were giving us tickets to get free lunches up in that cafe, because we’re doing such a great job. And they assured us that nothing was changing. We were all going to continue to work.
JW: But then, all of a sudden, everybody on the D shift was ordered into a meeting.
HH: On the 16th of November, they told us, “Oh, tomorrow we’re going to come in at 5:00 instead of 4:30. We’re going to have the town hall meeting.” And that doesn’t sound unusual because we have one every quarter. So, then we all go up to the meeting and they tell us, “As of right now, you were all terminated” — or they said laid off, but terminated is how it’s listed. If I try to get in and check my pay, it says that I was terminated.
JW: The job was well paid, and it came with benefits — medical, vision, dental. Over the years, he acquired a set of skills that are not easy to replace. So the sudden move took Hufford and his wife by surprise.
HH: If you were sick and in the hospital, they paid you; if you were in the hospital, you still got paid, they help you pay the hospital bill. It was a well paying job, I loved it. We got a shift differential because we were the overnight shift on the weekend. We worked Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays. We worked 12 hour shifts. The job I was doing required some computer literacy because I had to load computer programs into the machine so we could cut the aluminum properly, so the window will come out right. I started working on a CNC machine, which mills the whole process and completes the whole project. Then I went to a Joseph, which is just a machine that cuts it down, drills the holes, makes sure everything sets up so that we put the window together, all the parts line up.
PGT workers supporintg a suicide prevention program. Photo: PGT
If you could do this job, then when they sent you to the next job, you only had to have like a week’s training. To do the CNC, I took two weeks of training to learn how to do that properly because, you know, you can’t mess up. You can’t mess it up because that’s all part of what they call the “efficiency bonus” at the end of the year. Whatever scrap you get takes away from that, so you have to try not to have scrap and try to do the job correctly the first time.
To tell you the truth, I’m pissed off. No one ever said we were doing a bad job, they all told us, “Oh, you’re doing great. You’re doing great. You’re doing great.” So they’re blowing smoke while they’re trying to figure out how to get rid of us.
JW: Their IDs were taken, and they could not re-enter the building. There was a vague suggestion they may be rehired after the hiring freeze was over. But the only thing they got, for now, was how to apply for unemployment. Meanwhile, Hufford’s healthcare benefits were immediately canceled, but the deduction was still taken out of his check. He says he is trying to coordinate with colleagues who are facing this situation to file suit.
The 225 New South Windows employees laid off in Tampa by the same company did get two months’ notice, because their number was higher than one-third of the total employment in that location. The workers in Venice did not get that kind of advance warning. Hufford thinks that’s not correct.
HH: But because we were only 160, we didn’t fall under that, but I think we should have been incorporated into the people from New South because technically we are the same company.
JW: So what’s next for the Huffords?
HH: Yeah, I’m trying to figure out … you know, I’m 63. I can’t really retire yet, not and get enough money to pay all my bills, but I still have a mortgage to pay. So I’m trying to find a job, trying to figure out how to get unemployment, which I’ve never collected before, except the last time I got a thing was 1982, 1983, when there was still an office I could go to and talk to someone. Here you have to do everything online, and I hate doing things online. I like to be able to talk face to face to people.
I have Indeed on my phone, and I get updates for jobs that fit my criteria of what I’m able to do. I’ve applied for a couple jobs working for Amazon. I guess contractors that work for Amazon and a few others and in shipping and receiving, which is something I did it at Target, but I haven’t heard back yet. I’ve applied to six different places, but I have yet to hear anybody say anything to me
JW: He has also been looking at two other local window manufacturers, but none of them is hiring right now. At the same time, he is trying to file for unemployment, and he will draw from his 401K retirement fund. One particular challenge is healthcare and associated costs.
HH: But my wife and I both take prescriptions for high blood pressure and cholesterol, and I take anti-seizure medicine, and now we have no benefits. So I don’t know what I’m gonna do once my medicine runs out, because the one medicine costs about $125 for a one-month supply, but with my benefits I had from PGT it was $5.
JW: He says he hopes he and his wife will be able to stay in the area.
Johannes Werner, reporting for WSLR News.
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