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Shaw Industries, headquartered in Georgia, has been a mainstay in the Irmo area for decades. However, as part of a massive reorganization, the company will be laying off around 200 out of more than 300 employees this summer.
Layoffs affecting 203 employees are scheduled to occur by August 7, according to a notice submitted last month with the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce. According to the notice, the layoffs are permanent.
Despite claims by representatives of the workforce agency to the contrary, a Shaw spokeswoman has clarified that the factory would not be closing in its whole. According to Shaw spokeswoman Sara Martin, over a hundred workers will still be on-site at the St. Andrews Road location even after the layoffs are implemented.
Shaw is actively recruiting former employees from the Irmo plant to fill positions at other locations, including a large plant in Aiken that is currently experiencing a $500 million renovation and expansion project. Shaw employs over 1,200 individuals across multiple plants in the state. With roots in the production of carpet fiber resources, this Dalton, Georgia-based firm has grown into one of the biggest flooring producers in the world.
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Several different businesses have operated its Irmo facility, which is known as “8S,” since the 1960s. In a statement, Shaw’s VP of human resources Heather Canada Smith said, “These decisions are never made lightly.” Plant 8S’s employees have been crucial in developing high-quality goods, and we’re dedicated to helping them out while they go through this change.
The layoffs were initially reported on by WLTX in Columbia. Shaw stated that the house fiber extrusion processing unit is responsible for the layoffs at the Lexington County facility. According to a spokeswoman, the employees will still be employed by the company in Lexington County for their work in nylon resin polymerization and post-industrial cleanup.
In a statement sent to the state workforce department on June 6, the company announced that it would be laying off several employees, including operators and technicians involved in the extrusion process, as well as electricians and factory supervisors.
The company’s decision to relocate its residential carpet production operations to Georgia in 2023—which included the closure of a factory in California and the elimination of 291 jobs—led to layoffs in Lexington County. According to the Whittier (Calif.) Daily News, roughly 300 employees were affected when the company shut down a plant in Arizona last October.
In 2005, the St. Andrews Road factory was acquired by Shaw, a Berkshire Hathaway company. For a long time, Allied Chemical was in charge of the plant. In 1960, the groundwork for the plant’s location started. According to a piece in The State newspaper from July 29, 1960, it was said to be one of the biggest industrial plants in South Carolina at the time, with the potential to employ up to four thousand people.
Located on St. Andrews Road, Shaw Industries is a prominent landmark in the Irmo area. It may be viewed from the Saluda River in Irmo. Columbia and the surrounding areas have been home to the enterprise for many years. The Congaree Riverkeeper provided the photo.
Among the many environmental conflicts that have erupted at Shaw’s facility over the years is the one involving the chemical caprolactam, whose possible dangers prompted concern among some locals in the 1990s. The chemical was deemed non-hazardous by the federal authorities in 1998. It has also been discovered that groundwater is polluted.
The usage of everlasting chemicals, a new and potentially harmful category of contaminants, has just lately been examined. The corporation was recently sued by two environmental groups who asserted that the chemicals had been poured into the Saluda River and its flood plain for years from the Shaw factory. Carpets that resist stains, waterproof apparel, and firefighting foam are just a few products that use everlasting chemicals, commonly known as PFAS.
Polluted water and food can cause cancer and other health issues, according to environmentalists, and the 470-acre plant is continuously releasing toxins. The chemically polluted Cayce and West Columbia drinking water systems are upstream from the discharges. Shaw claims it is investigating the possibility that PFAS chemicals have seeped into their process after discontinuing their use five years ago on carpet fibers. One possible concern, though, is long-term liability.
Contaminants released into the environment by defunct industrial facilities decades ago can persist for a very long time. The purpose of the lawsuit is to clean up the problem that environmentalists believe exists at Shaw. However, Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler, whose group is seeking to stop discharges of forever chemicals, said that it’s too early to determine how the downsizing in Lexington County would affect this goal. Regarding Shaw’s plan to lay off employees, he stated, “I was a little surprised by the news; I was not aware of that and did not expect to see that.”
The two of us have been in touch to discuss Shaw’s activities. How will this change in their operations impact their long-term objectives, cleanup strategies, and future products? This is an important question that needs answering. Shaw spokeswoman Martin clarified that the personnel cuts are “not related to any local litigation.”
The loss of Shaw employment is a worry for an area that has already lost large enterprises, according to Art Guerry, a former Lexington County Councilman. Retired real estate agent Guerry, who lived near the Shaw plant, spoke highly of the company, saying that it had been a reliable employer and community member for many years.
A region known as St. Andrews-Irmo “is slowly bleeding,” he complained. There are no longer any banks, insurance companies, retail establishments, or shopping centers in our area. I was worried about the loss of tax revenue and the deterioration of the neighborhood when I observed that over 200 individuals had left the building.
