RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Mohawk Industries is preparing to close its Karastan manufacturing facility in Eden in Rockingham County.  The company projects that 108 employees will be impacted by the facility’s closure.

A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed by Mohawk Industries filed with the North Carolina Department of Commerce on March 3.

The Fortune 500 company (NYSE: MHK) acquired the plant in 1993, and a variety of residential and commercial carpeting has been produced at the facility, which is set for closure on April 23, 2021, according to the filing.

A federal law, the WARN Act, governs the process for companies that plan to close a facility or conduct a mass personnel layoff, requiring many to file a notice with the Department of Commerce, and other organizations.

According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce website, the WARN act seeks to protect workers, their families, and their communities.  The act requires employers to provide 60 days’ advance notice of certain plant closings and mass layoffs.

Businesses that employ at least 100 workers, excluding part-time workers, are required to file a WARN notice if they are preparing to take one of the following actions: closing a plant that affects at least 50 employees during any 30-day period or implementing a mass layoff of at least 500 employees, or between 50-499 employees when that number represents at least one-third of the employer’s workforce.

Mohawk Industries is a flooring manufacturer that creates and manufactures products for residential and commercial spaces throughout the globe, including carpet, rugs, ceramic tile, laminate, wood, stone, luxury vinyl tile, and vinyl flooring.  The company’s current market cap is just greater than $12.8 billion and was recently profiled in a MarketWatch report generated by Automated Insights for underperforming relative to its competitors.

William Christopher Wellborn, the COO of Mohawk Industries, is quoted in an August 2020 story from CNBC, as having told the publication “we have made permanent staffing reductions to reduce our fixed cost and align with current demand.”  32 positions were eliminated at the Eden plant in March 2019.  The company temporarily closed some facilities due to COVID-19 in the second quarter of 2020.