UPS “temporaily” lays off 150 employees after Athens fire

Athens UPS Facility Fire / Tri-State Mutual Aid

ATHENS, Tenn. (WDEF)-  Earlier this month, the UPS facility in Athens was destroyed in a fire.

Now, that company has delivered more bad news for the McMinn County area.

After a late night fire on December 3rd which completely destroyed their facility, 150 employees have been laid off by UPS.

The delivery service informed the city of Athens and the state of Tennessee via a required WARN notice.

The impact is not just felt by those employees, but many other businesses who depended on that facility.

Frank Clark, who is the communications coordinator for the city of Athens, said, “So obviously 150 employees (losing their jobs)  in our region is not a small amount. It was right before Christmas… That’s a big impact.”

He also described the economic impact for other businesses in the area will be significant as, “The smaller businesses like to relocate here because they have had pretty direct access to a shipment facility, and that was a really good thing for them. It’s a really big impact for them. It means a lot more travel time or higher shipping costs. Things of that nature.

UPS sent the following statement to News 12:

“Due to a recent fire in our Athens, TN facility, we have temporarily closed the facility and set up operations at alternate locations. Our employees are extremely important to us, and we understand the impact this may have. We remain committed to working with our employees and providing support.”

UPS added in the WARN notice the layoffs would affect both union and non-union employees.

However, Teamsters 519 of Knoxville, who represent several of these employees, say their employees are not affected by the layoff.

The devastation still at the Athens UPS facility is readily apparent.

The building is a frame of what it used to be.

The trucks behind the building are so damaged they can be seen through from the fire a few weeks ago.

If they reestablish operations in Athens, they will have to rebuild.

Clark said, “We don’t know when a building is closed and have to do reconstruction with any type of contracting and stuff like that, how long that temporary is temporary… but we are going to do our best between all of our economic partners, the city, and UPS to get that moving sooner than later.”

The layoffs go into effect January 10th.

The city is encouraging affected employees to utilize the USA Jobs Center on Congress Parkway to help find a new job.

As of now, there is no time table for when UPS may begin rebuilding in Athens.