Laid off from Medline.

What Medline layoffs have meant for employees

The openings Medline pointed people to could be a long drive from the old building. Plainfield's staff were told, as Inside INdiana Business reported, that they could apply at the new Jeffersonville center or any of its 45 distribution centers and 22 manufacturing plants, with relocation help for anyone taking a position more than two hours away. Lincolnton, Medline's first North Carolina distribution center when it opened in 2015, was being folded into Mebane, which Alamance News put about 137 miles away, and the Charlotte Observer reported about 20 jobs slated to move with it. When Medline announced the Salisbury closing, the Salisbury Post noted Medline centers nearby in Mebane, Concord and Charlotte. Weighing a move like that against the life you've built where you live is a hard call to be handed. If you're offered a role at another Medline site, it's worth asking whether relocation help comes with it, as it did for long moves out of Plainfield, and how long you have to decide.

At Plainfield, severance turned on the transfer question, since Medline offered it with job placement services to staff who chose not to move, so saying no to a move still carried an offer of severance. At Salisbury, Medline said severance and outplacement would go to employees it didn't place in another Medline role. At Lincolnton every worker could apply for other Medline openings, the Observer reported. At Coral Springs the option was remote work, with Medline expecting to offer remote roles to about 50 of the roughly 59 people its 2024 letter to Florida named, and that letter said there were no bumping rights. At the end of 2025 none of Medline's U.S. employees were unionized, its annual report says. If remote work or a transfer is on the table, you can ask whether the pay and duties carry over, and if a package is too, whether taking it affects applying for Medline jobs later.

Tracy's workers found out what came next over several weeks. In the fire's first days, one employee's account to ABC7 was that a supervisor had mentioned spreading workers among nearby distribution centers and that otherwise people were in the dark, and the station reported staffing agencies helping some workers look elsewhere. Medline's Tracy updates later described financial assistance, reimbursement for lost and damaged items, counseling through its Employee Assistance Program, a hotline in English and Spanish, and the recovery of employees' belongings, cars included. The replacement building it leased sits on Sugar Road, less than 10 miles from the burned site, by the company's account. If you were assigned to Tracy and Medline has offered you a nearby site, it's worth asking how long that assignment lasts and whether the new Tracy building is where you'd end up. If you lost things in the fire, it's worth asking whether the reimbursement Medline described covers them and keeping your own list of what was left in the building.

A closing's notice date and a given person's last day weren't the same thing in these records. Lincolnton's first layoffs began on March 25, 2024, while the notice to North Carolina came on April 30, as Alamance News noted, and Salisbury's production staff had a final separation date of Sept. 2 while its warehouse staff ran to Nov. 18. If you're working toward a separation date, it's worth having that date confirmed in writing, since the dates varied even within a single closing. And if you're trying to match a notice to your own site, our WARN tracker carries Medline's filings under several versions of the company's name, from plain Medline to Medline Industries, LP.

A sourced history of Medline layoffs

• April 2024, Coral Springs facilities consolidation

  Almost all of Medline's Coral Springs operations were set to stop July 1 as it consolidated facilities there, its letter to Florida said, with about 59 employees facing a possible permanent job loss.

• March 2024, Lincolnton distribution center closing

  Medline was consolidating its Lincolnton center into its new Mebane site, with 220 job cuts in four rounds and about 20 jobs set to move, according to the Charlotte Observer, and said it would offer severance and outplacement.

• May 2022, Salisbury surgical kit plant closing

  Medline set out to close the Salisbury kit plant it got with Centurion Medical Products in 2017, citing the available capacity within its manufacturing network, and told the Salisbury Post that anyone not placed in another Medline role would get severance and outplacement.

• August 2020, Mundelein permanent layoffs

  Medline announced 190 permanent layoffs at its Mundelein location, starting October 23, according to CBS Chicago's reading of the state's August report, and the Illinois notice in our WARN tracker is dated August 19, 2020.

• June 2020, Plainfield distribution center closing

  Medline was moving the Plainfield center's work to its new Jeffersonville center, Inside INdiana Business reported, with 129 layoffs set from August 28 to December 15 and severance and job placement for those who didn't transfer; its notice is in our WARN tracker.

What to do if you're laid off from Medline

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