Laid off from Kimberly-Clark.

What Kimberly-Clark layoffs have meant for employees

About half of Kimberly-Clark's workforce works directly in manufacturing and distribution, its 2025 annual report says, and its restructuring programs have reached both plants and offices, by the company's own descriptions in its 2021 annual report and second-quarter 10-Q. In 2025 the site-level changes on record were a buyout offer at Chester and a decision, given to the Fox Crossing plant in August, to cut its production lines starting in January 2026, according to union leaders the Post-Crescent quoted. A companywide percentage can't tell you whether your plant is in the count, and working a shift while that question hangs over the building is hard.

For anyone the severance plan covers, the details that shape the payment sit outside its formula. The company may subtract pay a participant received while working through a WARN notice period. The money comes as a lump sum within 60 or 75 days of the last day, depending on how long the agreement allows for considering the release. Eligible participants who enroll in COBRA on time get six months without the premium, plus outplacement help and three months of employee assistance. If you're offered a separation agreement, it's worth asking which of the plan's job groups you're in, since each carries its own weeks per year and minimum, and whether any notice-period pay will be counted against the total. Negotiating a severance agreement covers what's worth raising while the terms are still open, and how COBRA works covers what comes after the months the plan pays for.

If you're offered another job instead of severance, the plan's comparable-position rule matters. Under it, a comparable offer ends eligibility for severance, whether it comes from Kimberly-Clark after a job is eliminated or moved, from a successor after a sale, spin-off or shutdown of part of the company, or from an outsourcing company taking the work. An offer counts as comparable unless the plan's committee finds a material pay cut, a material change in where you'd work or a material loss of authority or duties. The plan gives an employee up to 90 days from the offer to raise one of those problems and the company at least 30 days to fix it, so if an offer looks like a step down, it's worth giving that notice early and keeping a copy.

Union members have had their own terms. At Fullerton the terms came from a closing agreement with the Pulp and Paper Workers local, and the buyouts at Mobile and Chester were voluntary programs open to workers in particular Steelworkers locals, with seniority deciding who got in when more signed up than the program would take. Once a buyout election was accepted, it couldn't be taken back, even by someone who then decided not to sign the release. If a buyout is offered where you work, it's worth reading the written terms, release included, while the election period is still open; Chester's ran from September 4 to 19.

If you're trying to match a notice to your own site, you can search our WARN tracker under both Kimberly-Clark and Kimberly Clark, the spellings its own filings use. Notices that contractors filed for work at its Texas sites, at Waco in 2007 and Paris in 2019, carry its name too, and they aren't counted as Kimberly-Clark's. The company's own filings come from Texas, California, Alabama, Washington and Wisconsin, and if you worked in one of those states, unemployment benefits in Texas, California, Alabama, Washington and Wisconsin are worth a look.

A sourced history of Kimberly-Clark layoffs

• September 2025, Chester facility buyout offer

  Kimberly-Clark offered hourly Chester facility workers represented by Steelworkers Local 10-448 lump sums of $10,000 to $25,000, rising with years of service, to leave October 15, 2025, under its severance plan.

• August 2025, Cold Spring production lines set to move abroad

  Kimberly-Clark planned to cut its Fox Crossing plant from 16 lines to 12 in January 2026, moving Kotex and Poise lines to Malaysia and Vietnam, union leaders told the Post-Crescent, which equated that to about 100 jobs but no immediate layoffs. The company said the changes didn't include job loss.

• March 2024, transformation initiative announced

  Kimberly-Clark announced a transformation on March 27, 2024 to streamline its global supply chain and make its overhead more efficient; its mid-2026 quarterly report expects workforce reductions of 4% to 5% and about $1.5 billion in pre-tax costs.

• December 2018, Cold Spring kept open, Conway set to close

  Wisconsin offered Kimberly-Clark up to $28 million in tax incentives to keep its Cold Spring plant open, the full amount tied to 388 technical manufacturing jobs, WLUK reported, while Kimberly-Clark's Conway, Arkansas, plant was set to close, putting 350 people out of work.

• February 2018, Fullerton mill closing plan

  Kimberly-Clark told employees at its 330-person Fullerton plant of a proposed closing, NBC Los Angeles reported, and a July 24, 2018 closing agreement with Pulp and Paper Workers Local 672 set severance, COBRA coverage and lump sums under its severance plan.

• January 2018, global restructuring program

  Kimberly-Clark said on January 23 it would cut 5,000 to 5,500 jobs and close about 10 plants, NBC Los Angeles reported; Kimberly-Clark's 2021 annual report says the program ended with about 6,000 workforce reductions and 11 plants closed or sold.

• December 2011, Everett mill closing confirmed

  Kimberly-Clark and union officials announced December 8 that the Everett mill would close in early 2012 after sale talks with Atlas Holdings broke down, HeraldNet reported, with about 750 union jobs set to end.

What to do if you're laid off from Kimberly-Clark

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