An Illinois company is shuttering its Stratford operation, and a Pennsylvania firm is making major cuts to its Bridgeport staff, representing a cumulative loss of nearly 500 jobs.
AptarGroup ”“ which provides packaging, dispensing and sealing solutions for the beauty, personal care, and prescription drug markets, among others ”“ is permanently closing its facility at 125 Access Road in Stratford, near Sikorsky Memorial Airport. Terminations are expected to begin in September and conclude by the end of March 2021.
The employees include 126 union workers affiliated with UNITE HERE New England Joint Board Local 325, and 105 nonunion staff. All employees and the union were first notified of the plant closure on Feb. 4, with formal notice to the union provided on July 15.
The company had previously announced that the move would cost 100 jobs.
AptarGroup, based in Crystal Lake, Illinois, is also permanently closing its facility at 301 Ella Grasso Ave. in Torrington, which will eliminate 59 positions.
In the meantime, alphaBroder Prime, a clothing distributor based in Trevose, Pennsylvania, is laying off or furloughing 255 employees at its warehouse at 1100 Boston Ave. in Bridgeport.
Beginning on March 20, the company “was forced to implement permanent terminations and temporary furloughs affecting employees at the Prime Bridgeport location,” Marilyn Caraballo, the firm”™s HR director, wrote to the state Department of Labor.
After terminating one employee on that date, alphaBroder prime terminated another 81 employees on April 17. All those terminations are expected to be permanent.
In addition, the company placed 152 employees on temporary furlough on April 3, and another 21 on temporary furlough on April 7. Although the firm hoped to return employees on temporary furlough within six months, it now “seems likely that furloughs will extend beyond six months,” Caraballo wrote.
