Laid off from Freeport-McMoRan.

What Freeport-McMoRan layoffs have meant for employees

In 2008 and in 2015, cuts at a single Freeport site came in steps. At Sierrita, Freeport announced 150 job cuts in August 2015 and 430 more in October before it moved in December to curtail operations there, according to KOLD, and Morenci's late-2008 cut in mining rates deepened to half in early 2009, as Freeport's fiscal 2008 10-K shows. If you came through a first round at a Freeport site, it may be worth reviewing how long your savings would last and starting a job search while you're still employed.

The kind of cut has mattered for what came after it. Chino, suspended in April 2020, was mining again in January 2021, by the account in Freeport's 2020 annual report. The Norwich layoffs, by contrast, were expected to be permanent, as Patch reported, and after several sales the oil and gas unit's remaining operating areas at the end of 2025 were mainly offshore California and the Gulf of Mexico, according to the annual report for 2025. If your notice describes a suspension or curtailment, that difference is worth weighing before you count on a restart, since the 2020 annual report doesn't say whether Chino's workers were brought back when mining resumed.

Both times prices slumped, as the 2008 report and Freeport's fiscal 2015 10-K show, special retirement benefits got a charge of their own, separate from severance. If you're near retirement when a cut reaches your site and you're given both a retirement option and a severance figure, comparing them side by side before you choose is worth the time. The 2020 plans used other tools as well, a temporary cut to some employee benefits, furloughs and an employee separation program, according to the 2020 annual report. If a letter reaches you, whether it speaks of a furlough or a separation is worth reading closely, since those plans used both.

The 2015 plan reached contractors as well as employees, counting both in its expected reduction at U.S. mining operations, as Freeport's August 2015 release put it. If you work for a contractor at a Freeport site, a Freeport plan can reach your job even though your paycheck comes from another company.

Groups of Freeport workers were certified for trade adjustment assistance at Morenci and Tyrone in 2009, at Safford and Phoenix in 2010, at Tyrone, Sierrita and Miami in 2016 and at Chino in 2020, according to the Labor Department, and its Phelps Dodge petition list adds Chino in 2009 and Norwich and Elizabeth in 2020. Workers filed the 2009 and 2010 petitions on the first list themselves, while the 2020 petitions for Chino, Norwich and Elizabeth came from the states. Each entry names one site's group with its own petition number, filing date and determination date, which can help you identify the certification for a particular site.

Two of the 2020 events, the Chino suspension and the Norwich closing, fall in years our New Mexico and Connecticut archives don't cover, so neither appears in our WARN tracker. If your job ended at one of the Arizona or New Mexico mines, Arizona unemployment benefits and New Mexico unemployment benefits lay out each state's claim rules; for the oil and gas jobs in Houston and California and the Henderson mine in Colorado, Texas unemployment benefits, California unemployment benefits and Colorado unemployment benefits do the same, as New Jersey unemployment benefits does for Elizabeth.

A sourced history of Freeport-McMoRan layoffs

• June to October 2020, Norwich closing and Elizabeth layoffs

  Phelps Dodge Industries planned to close its Norwich, Connecticut, rod plant, with 117 permanent layoffs expected under a state notice Patch described. Freeport set 48 Elizabeth, New Jersey, layoffs for October 16 under that name in a filing our tracker lists.

• April 2020, Chino mine suspended under pandemic plans

  Freeport suspended operations at its Chino copper mine under operating plans revised in April 2020 for the pandemic, its 2020 annual report records, and the Labor Department certified a Chino worker group for trade adjustment assistance that July.

• April 2016, oil and gas workforce reduction

  Freeport restructured its oil and gas management and, its April 2016 results explained, began cutting about 25% of that workforce, expecting a charge of about $40 million for workforce reductions and other restructuring costs.

• December 2015, Sierrita mine and mill curtailment

  Many Sierrita miners worked a last graveyard shift on December 9 as Freeport moved to curtail the mine and mill, which, according to KOLD, spokesman Eric Kinneberg said would affect about 450 more employees and leave about 250 for care and maintenance.

• August 2015, U.S. mine cutbacks after copper prices fell

  Freeport's revised plans, its August 2015 release said, called for suspending mining at its Miami mine, halving Tyrone's mining rate and adjusting rates at other U.S. mines, with about a 10% cut expected in U.S. mining employees and contractors.

• Late 2008, mine slowdowns and about 3,000 job cuts

  Freeport's fourth-quarter plans cut mining rates by a quarter at Morenci and by half at Safford and Tyrone, suspended Chino and trimmed Henderson's molybdenum output, according to its fiscal 2008 10-K, alongside workforce reductions of about 3,000 employees.

What to do if you're laid off from Freeport-McMoRan

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Freeport-McMoRan's biggest hubs: Texas, California, Colorado, Arizona. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Freeport-McMoRan's hub states run: Texas, California, Colorado, Arizona, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.