MOMENCE, Ill. (WLS) — Nearly 300 people lost their jobs on Monday after Johnsonville Foods announced the sudden closure of an Illinois facility.
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The sausage manufacturer notified 274 people that the Momence, Illinois facility was closing effective immediately.
The Momence Packing Company building has been a steady place of employment for the city for more than six decades.
For the last 30 years, it has been owned and operated by Johnsonville Foods.
“It’s like they didn’t even care about us. You know, same day?” former employee Lupe Hernandez said.
Hernandez says she has worked at the plant for 25 years as an office clerk and working in the hog barn.
She said they were called for a mandatory meeting in Kankakee – where the Johnsonville CEO told them the plant was closing down.
“It’s just very devastating, very heartbroken,” Hernandez said. “I’ve done nothing today but sit at home feel sorry for myself. What can we do?”
Local leaders said the news came as a complete surprise.
Momence Mayor Charles Steele said he only received a 15 minute heads up from the sausage producer.
“We depend upon all these employees to live here, get their services here, buy and shop here when they get off work, during lunches, on their way to work. And it’s a huge impact for our community overall, economically,” Steele said.
Tim Nugent is the president and CEO of the Economic Alliance of Kankakee County.
“Just when I was out there a couple weeks ago, the plant manager talked about over a million dollars’ worth of equipment that had recently been installed,” Nugent said. “If they’re investing in infrastructure it means that they made plans to stay around a while.”
Johnsonville Food said in a statement:
“We made the difficult decision after evaluating how best to optimize our operations network to address current and future growth. This decision was based on optimizing our operations across our other newer facilities.”
The company said it will continue to pay and provide benefits to the impacted employees for 60 days.
Hernandez said the pay will help but she planned to work three more years to pay off her home.
“I grew up a single mom and bought the house on my own, and wanted to show myself and my kids,” the former employee said. “Now, I called my mortgage company this morning and set something up with them, because I don’t want to lose it.”
The company says it plans to demolish the “aging facility” by the end of 2025.
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