San Francisco, California – Republic National Distributing Co., the country’s second-largest alcohol wholesaler, is pulling out of California and taking 1,756 jobs with it.
The Texas-based company announced in June that it would end its operations in the state by September 2. That decision became more tangible this week as the company filed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notices (WARN) with California authorities, outlining mass layoffs across eight locations, from San Diego to Sacramento. The move affects a wide range of employees, from warehouse drivers to vice presidents, and includes both union and non-union roles.
The job losses are staggering in scale: 640 in Tustin, 238 in San Bernardino, 226 in Pleasanton, and hundreds more in cities including Hayward, Los Angeles, and Morgan Hill. For many of these workers, some of whom have spent years in a steady industry, the layoffs came without a clear path forward. The WARN notices offer little more than confirmation that the jobs will be gone by early September…