Local business owners speak after Wayne Farms layoffs

LAUREL, Miss - Wayne Farms announced this week they will be laying off five hundred of their workers.

According to their press release, "As part of a long term agreement, 100% of the poultry processed at the facility will be allocated to a single customer. Because of the nature of the arrangement, Wayne Farms will no longer have need for the deboning lines in Laurel, and will discontinue this process. The cessation of deboning processing will not involve the entire facility, and does not affect Wayne Farms' live operations including hatchery, feed mill or farms, as the same volume of birds will be raised and processed as today. Approximately 500 employees will be impacted by this change which will be completed in June 2016. "

Shaumi Casper manager of Jitters Coffeehouse and Bookstore says it will affect her business since her customers work at Wayne Farms.

"Well my business in particular has been affected because we have had some customers that would get some coffee that is in their disposable income and then they can't get anymore."

Not only is the food industry in Laurel impacted by the layoffs, but retail shops too.

L

orrie's Delk of Lorrie's Furniture says, "Now with Wayne Farms laying off so many people, it affects our industry because people aren't giong to be shopping and spending money. They want to make sure they can buy food, put clothes on their kids, you know things that are a necessity. It is going to affect us in our area."

Casper mentions that it is small businesses that will suffer a bit more.

"Especially mom and pop businesses, it is very critical of us to have our daily income and make our daily average to make our ends meet and it is going to have a huge impact on us."

Both Casper and Delk indicate that Laurel has already took a hard hit with last year's layoffs in the oil industry.