Hundreds of Former Fluor Employees Meet With Attorneys
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Winnsboro, S.C. (WOLO)– Last week SCE&G and Santee Cooper laid-off thousands after pulling out of a Nuclear Reactor project. Many have nowhere to go, including contractors that worked under Fluor.
Monday, hundreds of laid off employees gathered in Winnsboro to learn more about what their next steps are.
One informational meeting quickly turned into three at the Carolina Events Center when more than 800 former employees came out looking for answers.
“You enjoy your weekend and then you wake up Monday morning and you don’t have a job. And you had nothing to do with it,” Tshinde Turmon said, a former Fluor employee who worked there for 3 years.
“It’ll be difficult to ever quantify just how much people have been hurt by this,” Amy Gaffney said, a partner with Gaffney, Lewis & Edwards.
Lawyers with Gaffney, Lewis, and Edwards gathered information from all who attended to see if there were any legal claims they would be able to file in the future. Consultations that the firm usually charge more than $300 dollars for, but offered the information for free for those affected in the mass layoff.
“Still a lot of questions out there. This was helpful in the sense that it did provide some answers, but there still some other questions that need to be answered as well,” Turmon said.
For most of the former employees, they are just worried about being able to provide for their families. People like Turmon, who is set to get married next week.
“Right after you get here to have the rug pulled from under your feet. There’s no way for you to provide for your family. I mean, what do you do? Nobody expects that. Nobody expected this. And it’s very devastating to watch grown men cry in these types of events,” Turmon said.
“It’s a 50-50 thing, whether we have a shot at it or not. But it’s worth it because I have a family to take care of,” Simmeon Boatwright said, another former Fluor employee said.
“When it’s the biggest employer in a certain community… you know, a 5-thousand employee layoff in Charleston is going to have a lot different economic impact than a 5-thousand employee layoff in Fairfield county. So, and that certainly makes people even more agitated, even more frustrated, because it’s not just them. It’s their neighbors, it’s their family members, it’s the whole community affected by this so, it can be uniquely impactful in a small community,” Gaffney said, describing the layoff.
Even though these meetings were just informational and it is not a sure thing something can be done, many people say they are willing to be patient and wait for an outcome.
“It’s better than nothing so… I’m staying hopeful about it,” Boatwright said.
