Laid off from Perdue Farms.

What Perdue Farms layoffs have meant for employees

At Perdue, the end of work and the end of pay haven't always fallen on the same day. Perdue's September 2025 letter on the Washington, Indiana shift cut carried pay and benefits 23 days past the last workday, but only for workers who weren't fired for cause and didn't leave before that day, so anyone who quit early for another job would give that money up. Those two conditions are the kind worth finding in any Perdue letter. If a letter gives you a last workday and a later separation date, it's worth confirming which one ends your pay, which one ends your benefits, and whether any severance comes on top of the weeks between them. If an offer comes with a signing deadline, negotiating severance is worth a look before the date passes.

The Cofield notice shows how a headcount can outrun the layoffs behind it. Besides the feed mill crew whose jobs were set to end, it counted grain and oilseed workers facing a temporary shutdown and transportation staff who were reassigned with continued pay and benefits, an AP report on WCTI12 said, so its total measures jobs touched rather than people let go. If your site appears on a Perdue notice, which of its groups you're in matters more than the total, because an idled job, a reassignment and a termination each carry their own dates. For an idled job, the questions that matter are whether pay continues during the shutdown and whether there's a target date to come back; for a reassignment, the new role's hours and pay are the details to get in writing.

Some businesses Perdue bought have filed notices under their own names. It bought Coleman Natural Foods in June 2011, and Draper Valley came with that purchase, according to The Poultry Site. The Coleman and Draper Valley notices in our WARN tracker carry those companies' names rather than Perdue's. Coleman's two, from 2008 and 2009, predate the purchase, and Draper Valley's, for a 2012 closing in Renton, Washington, came after it. Perdue's own notices haven't used one name either, appearing as Perdue Farms on some and Perdue Foods on others. If you're looking for a Perdue notice on a state's WARN list, it's worth searching under Perdue Farms, Perdue Foods, Coleman Natural Foods and Draper Valley rather than one name alone.

The reasons Perdue gave for its closings were about the sites. It said the Pennsylvania plant would need significant and costly upgrades and still couldn't overcome its age, the Central Penn Business Journal reported; it decided to close Alexander & Hornung after what a spokesperson told Food Processing was an extensive business and financial review; and it described the Cofield explosion as an "unforeseeable business circumstance," the same AP report said. If a hiring manager asks why your job ended, Perdue's own public reason can be quoted as it stands, and explaining a layoff picks up from there.

The Indiana and Tennessee records connect the affected workers with rapid response programs. Perdue's Washington letter was addressed to the rapid response program at Indiana's Department of Workforce Development, and Tennessee's labor department memo says the Upper Cumberland rapid response team was notified to coordinate services with Perdue and the affected Monterey employees, with the region's workforce board overseeing follow-up dislocated worker services. For anyone out of work from Cofield, Washington or Monterey, that state's claim rules are at North Carolina unemployment benefits, Indiana unemployment benefits and Tennessee unemployment benefits.

A sourced history of Perdue Farms layoffs

• April 2026, Cofield, North Carolina feed mill layoffs after explosion

  After a Feb. 21 blast killed a worker and left the feed mill beyond repair, the precautionary notices Feedstuffs described set 15 feed mill terminations for April 19 and a temporary closure for 59 grain receiving and oilseed crush workers.

• September 2025, Washington, Indiana second-shift layoffs

  Ending the Washington plant's second shift would permanently lay off 293 nonunion workers, Perdue Foods said in a September 2025 letter to Indiana, with a last workday of Oct. 10 and separation from employment on Nov. 2.

• January 2025, Monterey, Tennessee plant closing

  Perdue Foods told Tennessee's labor department on Jan. 21 that it would permanently close the Monterey plant on March 28, affecting 433 workers who had no union contract.

• August 2023, Alexander & Hornung plant closing in Michigan

  Perdue Premium Meat, which bought Alexander & Hornung in 2020, said it would close the St. Clair Shores plant, according to Food Processing, with most of its 132 employees to be laid off Oct. 14.

• April 2019, 118 mostly overhead positions eliminated

  The eliminations amounted to about 0.6% of Perdue's 21,000 employees, a representative told 47 ABC.

• January 2014, Pennsylvania plant and distribution center closing

  Closing the BC Natural Chicken plant in Bethel Township around March 14 and not renewing a distribution center lease would cost about 650 jobs, according to a Perdue spokeswoman quoted by the Central Penn Business Journal.

What to do if you're laid off from Perdue Farms

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