Laid off from Silgan.

What Silgan layoffs have meant for employees

Nearly every California filing of Silgan's in our WARN tracker falls between June and October. The notices California's WARN report typed for 2025, and the Riverbank layoffs in Silgan's August 12 letter to Stanislaus County, were all temporary, and that letter says the Riverbank plant will keep operating through them. If you work at the Modesto or Riverbank plants, a notice in that stretch is worth reading for three things, whether it says temporary, which month it expects people back and whether the plant stays open, since the 2026 letters spell out all three.

Silgan can't yet say which employees will be laid off in which week, its July 21 letter for the Doherty Avenue plant and the Riverbank letter both say, because of the contract's bumping rights, the option employees have to take a voluntary layoff by seniority and the company's right to keep skilled trades such as mechanics and electricians out of seniority order. The hourly employees being laid off at both plants are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Both letters phase the layoffs in over the fall, so a covered worker's turn can come weeks after the first group goes. If you're an hourly employee covered by one of these notices, your own start date turns on those provisions, and a voluntary layoff by seniority is one of the options the letters describe.

Several closings on record moved work rather than ending it. The cost program sent its closed plants' volumes to other facilities, according to Silgan's 10-K for 2025, and other Silgan plants were to absorb the Oconomowoc plant's volume, according to its closing letter. The Winfield notice cited the transfer of customer volumes to other locations, Packaging Dive reported, while the Finger Lakes plant in New York was set to close over what Silgan called a loss of customer base, The Metal Packager reported. At Winfield and Paris, Silgan said some workers might be offered jobs elsewhere in the company, according to that Packaging Dive report and MyParisTexas. Closings have also reached each of Silgan's three businesses, dispensing and specialty closures as well as metal and custom containers, by the 10-K's own count. If Silgan has said your plant will close and a transfer matters to you, it's worth raising before the layoff phases begin.

Contract coverage varies across Silgan. About 31 percent of its hourly plant workers in the United States and Canada were represented by unions at the end of 2025, the 10-K says. Oconomowoc's hourly jobs were union-represented, with a copy of the closing letter going to IAM District 10, while Hazelwood's workers weren't in a union, according to a WARN letter that First Alert 4 reported on, so the bumping and seniority terms in the California letters describe union plants rather than every Silgan plant. Closings have touched union pensions before. The Mt. Vernon and Waupun closings, together with a new contract at Silgan's Menomonee Falls plant, were to complete Silgan's withdrawal from the Central States Pension Fund, with Menomonee Falls employees moving to a company-sponsored benefit plan, Silgan's June 2019 release said.

Silgan's filings cluster in California, Illinois and Wisconsin, and what an unemployment claim involves in each of those states is set out at California unemployment benefits and its counterparts for Illinois and Wisconsin, with Hazelwood's state at Missouri unemployment benefits. For the Modesto and Riverbank layoffs, Silgan's letters say it would coordinate with the Stanislaus County Local Workforce Development Board.

A sourced history of Silgan layoffs

• July 2026, Modesto Doherty Avenue plant temporary layoffs

  Silgan Containers told Stanislaus County in a July 21 letter that it would temporarily lay off up to 55 of the 70 people at its Doherty Avenue plant from September 21, with the plant staying open and recalls expected in January 2027.

• January 2026, Paris, Texas container plant closing letter

  Silgan Containers Manufacturing told its 47 Paris workers in a letter dated January 22 that the plant would close March 23, and that some of them would be offered jobs at other Silgan plants, MyParisTexas reported.

• May 2025, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin container plant closure notice

  Silgan told Wisconsin in a May 21 letter that it would close its Oconomowoc container plant, where 56 people worked, with layoffs starting on or after July 21 and its volume going to other Silgan plants; IAM District 10 got a copy.

• December 2024, Hazelwood, Missouri plastics plant closing set

  Silgan Plastics planned to close its Hazelwood plant in phases, laying off 33 people from February 7 and the rest of its workers by the end of 2025, First Alert 4 reported, citing a WARN letter that said they weren't union members.

• January 2024, Modesto, California container plant closure

  Silgan Containers Manufacturing filed a notice dated January 3 for a permanent closure of its plant at 4210 Yosemite Blvd. in Modesto, affecting 64 employees from March 31, California's WARN report for 2023-24 shows.

• November 2023, Winfield, Kansas dispensing plant closing

  Silgan Dispensing expected to lay off 169 Winfield workers from January 27 to March 1, citing consolidation, and said some might be offered jobs at a Grandview, Missouri plant, Packaging Dive reported.

• Late 2023, Silgan announces a $50 million cost program

  Silgan's 10-K for 2025 says it set out in late 2023 to save $50 million over two years, closed seven plants under the plan while moving their volumes to other facilities, and completed it in 2025.

• June 2022, Wayne County, New York container plant closing

  Silgan Containers Manufacturing set a permanent closing for September 2 at its Finger Lakes plant, affecting 65 employees, and gave a loss of customer base as the reason, The Metal Packager reported from the state's filing.

• June 2019, Mt. Vernon and Waupun container plants closing

  Silgan said in a June 4 release that it would close its Mt. Vernon, Missouri and Waupun, Wisconsin metal container plants in the fourth quarter and move their volumes to existing plants and a new leased Midwest plant.

What to do if you're laid off from Silgan

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