Laid off from Hubbell.

What Hubbell layoffs have meant for employees

The reasoning on record is about overlap between plants. A company official told Newtown's first selectman the plant ran at about 40 percent of capacity making the same product line as the Puerto Rico plant, and described similar capacity and product redundancy between Bethel and Alabama, according to the Newtown Bee. That's one official's account of two closings, passed along by a town leader. New Berlin's letter to Wisconsin gave a reason of the same kind, consolidation in other Hubbell facilities. The question all this raises for your own site is which other Hubbell plant makes the same thing.

Hubbell put a size on that thinking in July 2019. Finance chief William Sperry said on the earnings call that it would invest about $60 million over two years to take out about 1 million square feet, roughly 10% of its factory and warehouse footprint. Two of the four largest projects were closing "high cost Northeast facilities" and two were "subscale," and the point was to use space it already had and raise sales per square foot. He said the program would likely run past 2020. In a separate record from that 2019 plan, the September 2026 quarterly report names "further footprint consolidation" among the reasons it expected restructuring spending to continue.

The closing letters read differently at union and nonunion sites. South Bend's letter to Indiana said bumping rights would apply to the 65 union members under their contract and not to the salaried staff. New Berlin's said no union represented its employees and bumping rights wouldn't apply. Both employers said each person would get separate notice of an anticipated date. If a letter gives you your own date, it can be a closer guide than the state notice.

Two closings came after decisions that could have read as commitments to the site. Freeburg's mayor told KSDK the company had just invested in six expensive robots and "we thought maybe they weren't leaving," the Labor Tribune reported, and Area Development reported in 2012 that South Bend would serve as RACO's primary warehouse for all products. The Freeburg report and the South Bend letter both name Aurora as a destination. If you're sizing up your own plant, those two cases suggest caution about reading new equipment or a primary-warehouse designation as a sign of staying put.

Aclara, which Hubbell's 2021 annual report says it bought in February 2018, has closed sites for other reasons. Somersworth was a decision to outsource production, Business NH reported, while New York's notice cites a finished project. If your Aclara job hangs on a project, its end date is worth tracking alongside any notice.

You can look under Hubbell Incorporated, Hubbell Power Systems, Hubbel Power Systems with one L, Hubbell Gas Utility Solutions, Hubbell Electric Products Inc, Hubbell/RACO and Aclara SGS LLC in our WARN filings. Those names take in Aclara's row from before the purchase and leave out Hubbell Lighting rows, because Hubbell sold that commercial lighting business to GE Current in February 2022, that same annual report says. Aclara's 2021 New York notice and the 2019 Connecticut closings predate our archives for those states, so older notices there have to come from state records or press reporting. For anyone laid off at Freeburg, the union said it would work with state officials on dislocated worker programs for retraining, resumes and job placement.

A sourced history of Hubbell layoffs

• April 2025, Freeburg Wiegmann plant closing notice

  The enclosure plant announced plans to close and lay off 110 workers, moving operations to Aurora, Illinois, and Juarez, Mexico, the Labor Tribune reported. The WARN notice scheduled layoffs from September 1 through early 2026.

• January 2023, New Berlin plant closing notice

  Hubbell Gas Utility Solutions' WARN letter to Wisconsin said it would close the plant permanently and consolidate the business in other Hubbell facilities. It counted 106 employees, with separations expected from about March 7 through September 1, 2023.

• August 2022, Ontario, California closure

  Hubbell Power Systems' 193-job closure at 500 S. Dupont Ave. is listed as permanent in California's WARN report, noticed August 5 and effective October 5, 2022.

• August 2021, Aclara closing notice in New York City

  All 565 employees at Aclara Smart Grid Solutions' Brooklyn and Bronx sites were on the closing notice, New York's WARN record shows, with completion of a stand-alone project as the reason and CWA Local 1109 as the union. Brooklyn closed December 31, 2021, and an April 2022 amendment postponed separations for 63 people.

• March 2021, South Bend RACO warehouse closing notice

  Hubbell/RACO's WARN letter to Indiana announced a permanent closing of the warehouse, with operations moving to a Hubbell facility in Aurora, Illinois. The 75 jobs included 65 IUE Local 84913 members, and separations were expected in stages from about June 1.

• February 2020, Aclara Somersworth production exit announced

  Aclara told employees it would exit production at the former GE meter plant in New Hampshire over the next year, moving manufacturing and repair to contract manufacturers, Business NH reported. About 100 staff were to go to a new engineering site.

• June 2019, Newtown and Bethel closings announced

  Hubbell said it would close both Connecticut plants as part of an ongoing operational efficiency initiative, the Newtown Bee reported, with Newtown's manufacturing going to Puerto Rico and Bethel's work to Alabama. State legislators put the loss at 194 jobs.

• July 2017, Aclara SGS closing in Champaign

  Aclara SGS LLC's closing sits in our WARN filings from before the purchase Hubbell's 2021 annual report dates to February 2018.

• May 2013, South Holland distribution center closing

  A South Holland closing covering 82 jobs sits under Hubbell Electric Products Inc in our WARN filings. RACO was moving its distribution center to South Bend, with up to 77 new jobs and up to $600,000 in conditional Indiana tax credits, Area Development had reported.

What to do if you're laid off from Hubbell

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Hubbell's biggest hubs: Illinois, California, Wisconsin, Indiana. 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 Hubbell's hub states run: Illinois, California, Wisconsin, Indiana, 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.