Mississippi furniture maker fires thousands of employees via text just days before Thanksgiving

A major Mississippi furniture manufacturer has come under intense scrutiny after dismissing nearly 2,700 employees without warning in the middle of the night, leaving operations across several states effectively shuttered days before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Late on November 21, workers at United Furniture Industries (UFI) were sent a late night text message informing them that their jobs had been terminated “effective immediately”. The message, sent just before midnight and reviewed by multiple outlets, attributed the decision to “unforeseen business circumstances” and instructions from the company’s board.

The notice informed employees they were not to return to any UFI facility. Hours later, a follow-up email delivered more alarming news: the layoffs were expected to be permanent, and benefits would be cut off immediately, with no continuation of health coverage under Cobra—an option normally available to laid-off workers to extend employer-provided insurance.

Drivers making deliveries at the time said they were ordered to halt their routes and return company property on the spot, regardless of whether shipments had reached their destinations.

In the days since the shutdown, UFI has offered little clarity. Former employees were told this week that the company is working with a property manager to establish a process for retrieving personal belongings but provided no timeline, saying only that updates would follow.

The abrupt collapse has left hundreds of families confronting uncertainty at a moment typically devoted to holiday preparation. Many described feeling blindsided.

“It’s not fair to the laborers who seriously worked so hard to be blindsided like this,” one employee told FreightWaves, expressing fear for colleagues facing immediate medical and financial consequences. “It’s not fair to the mom who just had a baby… It’s not fair to the cancer patient in the midst of chemo.”

Others described the emotional whiplash after being told days earlier to prepare for a busy week. “This has been a drastic shock to every one of us,” former worker TJ Martin told WLBT. “Every one of us is dedicated to the company. We consider each other to be family members.”

The fallout has already begun moving into the courts. On Wednesday, former employee Toria Neal filed a federal lawsuit alleging UFI violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires most large employers to provide at least 60 days’ notice before mass layoffs or plant closures.

The company has not publicly commented beyond its internal messages, and no explanation has yet been offered for the sudden shutdown. For thousands of families across Mississippi, North Carolina, and beyond, the only certainty is that the news arrived long after the workday ended—and far too close to the holidays.