LUMBERTON, NC:: The Kayser-Roth plant in Lumberton, NC is almost never quiet. The 500,000 square foot plant is where No nonsense panty hose is made, packaged and shipped from.
The plant has about 550 employees, “We are a big place,” said Kayser-Roth Plant Manager Zac Greene. On most days hundreds of workers can be seen coming and going at all hours of the day.
One of the biggest distributors on the east coast the plant is pumping out product almost nonstop, but all that changed back in September when Hurricane Florence hit the east coast, “We didn’t have power so obviously we couldn’t operate,” said Human Resources Director Teresa Johnson.
The plant was shut down for eight days. Even if workers wanted to show up they couldn’t. The financial loss for the company is unknown but it was also a major issue for workers, “Let’s face it a lot of them are (living) paycheck to paycheck,” said Johnson.
The 550 employees were basically, unemployed for eight days and because of that could file for unemployment insurance, “We will continue to work after hours and weekends till we get all the claims addressed,” said Lockhart Taylor with the Dept. of Commerce.
Statewide more than 25,000 people have filed unemployment claims directly connected to Florence. The state already paying out more than $1.8 million. “We will work day and night to assist individuals,” said Taylor.
In many cases members from the Department of Commerce went to companies impacted by the storm to assist employees filing out claims, “It meant a lot for them to come here and help us,” said Johnson.
Irish Guilford has worked at the Kayser-Roth plant five years. Losing a paycheck because of the storm would have been hard on her family, “I can’t pay my bills, what do I do, how do I pay my bills?” said Guilford.
The state allows workers impacted to collect up to $350 a week for 12 weeks. The state also provided more than $490,000 in disaster unemployment assistance.