Stanford maintenance guy speaks out

You can find all of our Stanford coverage right here. Looking for pictures? You’ll find them in our previous coverage, but we’ve also gathered most of them in this post.
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11:26 p.m. update: If you are a former or current Stanford employee, you should to read this list of FAQs from the Stanford receiver. It answers questions about health insurance, 401(k)s and other employee issues.

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From this weekend’s Daily Journal:

Terence McGuirt

“You have been separated from service.”

Terence McGuirt and about 1,000 other Stanford Financial employees heard the words last week that many had expected – but perhaps have not yet accepted.

“We got no severance, no warning, nothing,” said McGuirt, who worked in maintenance at the Fairpark District office.

Stanford employees were notified of their job loss in a letter from the court-appointed receiver in control of Stanford’s assets.

New plans for Toyota Mississippi?

11:50 a.m. update: We also have a response from Gov. Haley Barbour:

We’ve not been advised of any change in the Toyota model to be produced at Blue Springs. We know Toyota continues to keep a close eye on the market. We’ll keep working together on behalf of the state and company’s best interests.”

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11:40 a.m. update: Toyota spokeswoman Barbara McDaniel e-mailed the following response earlier this morning, regarding Mr. Lentz’s remarks he made yesterday as outlined by the Bloomberg story below:

There are no plans to make any vehicle change for Mississippi at this time.  As for any future decisions, Toyota always considers stability for its plants locally and viability for the company globally.

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Could another vehicle be built at the Blue Springs plant? This report from Bloomberg (full story):

March 12 (Bloomberg) — Toyota Corp., preparing to sell a revamped Prius hybrid later this year, may review plans to build the car in Mississippi and possibly make another model in the state, the company’s U.S. sales chief said.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, in December halted construction of an assembly plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi, amid plunging vehicle sales. The company is only completing the exterior for now, and hasn’t said when the factory may open.

“It’s conceivable that something else could go potentially in there,” Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, told reporters in Washington yesterday. “It was originally designed for Highlander, then switched to Prius. “That decision can still be moved around.”

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We’ll try to find out more and keep you posted – Biz Buzz

Insurance company needs 50 employees

Liberty National Insurance Company is having a job interview event on Wednesday at the Hilton Garden Inn in Tupelo.

The company will be conducting interviews at 9 a.m., Noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., and is looking for 50 sales agents and sales managers.

Liberty says the average commission income for one of its reps that stayed with the company for 12 months last year was more than $61,000.

If you can’t go to the interview sessions, call (662) 844-4644 or e-mail tupelobranch@gmail.com to schedule another time.

Stanford employees laid off (Day 21)

Stanford’s receiver answered our questions about the employees’ future on Friday: about 85 percent were laid off. From the Houston Chronicle (full text):

About 1,000 workers in Stanford Financial Group’s U.S. offices — 85 percent of the company’s U.S. employees — lost their jobs Friday.

The court-appointed receiver in control of the company’s assets, Dallas lawyer Ralph Janvey, issued a statement saying he had concluded that keeping them on the job wasn’t in the interest of preserving whatever money is left because there are “insufficient resources” to keep paying the workers.

The firings were effective Friday and included loss of benefits. No one received severance pay or bonuses, the statement said.

Read the receiver’s full statement, including how Stanford Financial allegedly has amassed “tens of millions of dollars in unpaid bills.”

Read our previous Stanford coverage.

Other Stanford headlines from around the web today:

Cuneo: Toyota’s still coming

From today’s Daily Journal:

FULTON – Pardon Dennis Cuneo when he scoffs at talk that Toyota plans to abandon its Blue Springs assembly plant.

The former senior vice president for Toyota Motor North America said Monday the automaker will open the plant when the economy gets better.

“The rumor that Toyota is trying to renegotiate its deal – there’s no truth to it at all,” said Cuneo, who spoke to students, school officials and business leaders at Itawamba Community College on Wednesday.

Corporate layoffs up 158% in Feb.

From Marketwatch (full text):

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Corporate layoff announcements slowed last month compared with January, but they were up 158% compared with February 2008, according to an unscientific monthly tally released Wednesday by outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas.

Major U.S. companies announced 186,350 job reductions in February, more than double the year-earlier figure of 72,091. In January, layoff announcements as tracked by Challenger Gray had surged to a seven-year high of 241,749.

The figures are not seasonally adjusted.

So far this year, layoff announcements have totaled 428,099 job cuts, up 191% from the first two months of 2008. For all of 2008, 1.22 million job reductions were announced.

Update from Stanford receiver (Day 16)

Want to see pictures of Jim Davis, Laura Pendergest-Holt, their Tupelo office and their Baldwyn homes? Click here.

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5:55 p.m. update: Stanford Financial investors may get access to their accounts on Friday, the Daily Journal has learned. Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann was on a conference call with the court-appointed receiver not long ago, and Hosemann said the receiver “indicated” that investors with less than $100,000 in their Stanford accounts could – could – begin seeing their accounts thawed. We’ll have more details in tomorrow’s Daily Journal.

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5:15 p.m. update: Does anyone know if Pendergest-Holt had a radio show in Memphis? This paragraph (full text) from the Memphis Flyer makes us think she might have:

Unemployed? CDF wants to help.

From today’s Daily Journal:

TUPELO – The Community Development Foundation is partnering with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security and Itawamba Community College to offer seminars that are geared at teaching people how to get a job in a competitive world.

The seminars will be held Thursday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. at CDF’s board room at 300 W. Main St. in downtown Tupelo. The seminars are free, but are limited to the first 40 people. Reservations are required. Reserve a seat by contacting Angela Glissen at 842-4521 or aglissen@cdfms.org.

Todd Beadles, CDF’s director of work force development, said the 90-minute seminars will discuss effective resume writing, successful interviewing techniques and online destinations for job listings. In addition, Beadles said the sessions will discuss career readiness certificates and the manufacturing skills basic certification program through ICC.

Beadles said the program is geared at “anyone who’s in search of employment … from people who have not had to seek employment for a long time to people right out of college. We’re making it very broad for everyone. We want to help as many people as possible right now.”

True Temper cuts 60 jobs

From Daily Journal’s sister paper, The Monroe Journal via monroe360.com:

AMORY – What was once one of the largest industries in Monroe County, True Temper has reduced its work force by another 60 jobs by eliminating its second shift. The company eliminated its third shift in 2008.

Headquartered in Memphis, the Amory plant manufactures steel golf shafts as well as other steel products.

Company officials declined to comment on the lay offs stating they “are privately owned and not allowed to make any statement regarding our employees or their employment situation.”

Up to 800 new jobs for Tishomingo

Economic development project for Tishomingo County that is expected to create 800 jobs over the next years … The press release:

DATE: February 2, 2009

GOVERNOR BARBOUR ANNOUNCES ATK WILL EXPAND MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS AT
IUKA FACILITY

Jackson, Mississippi – Governor Haley Barbour announced today that
Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE: ATK) will manufacture composite
structures for next-generation commercial aircraft at its Iuka,
Mississippi, facility.

Composite materials are critically important in the production of
next-generation aircraft because their strength and light weight deliver
fuel efficiencies and operability unavailable using traditional metal
manufacturing. ATK will produce composite structures for these aircraft,
as well as composite aircraft engine components, at its Iuka facility.
The expansion is expected to retain the 176 jobs currently at the
facility, and the workforce will grow to a total of 800 employees in the
next eight years.