Two companies with operations in North Texas are among those anticipating massive layoffs in the state
Six companies in Texas notified the state that they plan to lay off 1,100 workers in the coming weeks for reasons ranging from a change in ownership to bankruptcy and loss of contracts.
The largest job cuts were 165 in Fort Worth, following the sale of Ed Tucker Powersports to Pennsylvania-based Turn 14 Distribution, one of the nation’s largest automotive parts distributors.
In a letter to the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), Tucker Powersports stated that the sale will result in the closure of its Texas corporate offices and distribution center, located on Alliance Gateway Freeway, at the end of October.
Turn 14 Distribution, named after the 14th lap of the Road America race, acquired Tucker Powersports’ inventory, intellectual property and proprietary brands such as Kuryakyn, Answer Racing, Pro Taper and QuadBoss.
With this, the company forays into the powersports market.
“In forming our Powersports team, counting sales, marketing and purchasing employees, Turn 14 Distribution will make every reasonable effort to retain and maintain Tucker Powersports’ talent pool,” Turn 14 Distribution CEO Jon Pulli said when the deal was announced in August.
Another company notifying TWC of job cuts was RTX, formerly Raytheon Technologies.
RTX specified that 27 employees will be laid off when it closes its Lemmon Avenue plant in Dallas in early November. The letter said the cutback is due to “a decline in anticipated business and budget constraints.”
“RTX is committed to meeting its commitments to its customers at the Lemmon Avenue facility and continues to invest in North Texas given the considerable growth in the region,” the company said in an e-mail response to The Dallas Morning News. “We are working to absorb a good portion of the talent that exists at Lemmon Avenue for our many North Texas facilities.”
The total number of jobs eliminated was obtained from WARN notices submitted to TWC.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act, passed by Congress in 1988, requires companies with more than 100 workers to give 60 days’ notice of any layoff of more than 50 employees from a single facility.
Aramark Services Inc, a supplier of uniforms and food services to hospitals, will lay off nearly 700 employees. In the letter to TWC, the company detailed that it will be replaced Oct. 31 as the caterer for seven Christus Health facilities in East Texas, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Beaumont.
“It is our understanding that most of the displaced workers have the opportunity to continue working with the new vendor,” the company explained.
The remaining layoffs will be because of the closure of the following businesses:
A Compass United phone center in San Antonio: 104 employees. A Watts Regulator Co. work center in San Antonio: 31 workers.
An Off Lease Only LLC used car dealership in Katy: 103 employees. Off Lease Only recently filed for bankruptcy protection. In the letter to TWC, the company said it failed to find a buyer or sources of capital to continue operating.
“Unprecedented changes in the auto sales business in recent years have created considerable problems and competitive pressures for independent used car dealers,” wrote human resources director Rebecca Radosevich. “Like many others, the company has been hit hard by inventory shortages and inflated prices resulting from supply chain disruptions.”
The Florida company opened in Katy just this year.