Local Pfizer plant to lay off 60 employees

The Rocky Mount Pfizer plant is laying off 60 employees.

N.C. Commerce Department spokesman David Rhoades on Friday provided to the Telegram a copy of a federal WARN Act letter from the pharmaceutical giant.

The letter, which was dated Wednesday, stated the company’s intentions to terminate a total of 210 employees at two plants in North Carolina. The Rocky Mount plant and a plant in the Sanford area in Lee County will be affected.

Rhoades said Friday that although the letter did not provide a breakdown of the numbers of layoffs at the two plants, the department’s Division of Workforce Solutions said that 60 employees would be affected at the Rocky Mount plant and that 150 employees would be affected at the plant in Lee County.

The letter told the department that the company had decided to permanently close select manufacturing operations at the two plants.

The letter also told the department that the closures of those manufacturing operations at the two plants had already started and that the first affected workers’ last day would be Wednesday but that the terminations would occur 60 days later.

The letter also made clear that the layoffs would be permanent and that there would be no bumping rights at these locations that would allow employees with more seniority to replace less-senior employees.

The Rocky Mount plant is adjacent to the North Wesleyan Boulevard interchange for N.C. 4 and between the far northern edge of the city proper and the Battleboro community.

Pfizer in a news release in September 2023 had said that the Rocky Mount plant had more than 3,000 full-time employees and contractors and had produced nearly 50 high-quality medicines.

The company at the time said that the medicines had comprised about 25 percent of the company’s sterile injectables used in the nation’s hospitals, which equated to about 8 percent of the total U.S. hospital supply.

Pfizer spokesman Steven Danehy, in an email Friday, issued a statement saying that the company does not take the changes at the two plants lightly.

“Our colleagues are our top priority and we are committed to keeping them informed throughout the process and providing them with support services,” the statement said.

“We want to reinforce that this decision is not a reflection on the performance of our colleagues but is in alignment with our site capacity designed to meet the needs of the business,” the statement said.

Rocky Mount Mayor Sandy Roberson, in a phone interview Friday, said that he had received a copy of the WARN Act letter a couple of days earlier.

“It’s never good when you see companies having to realign their workforce with their revenue streams,” Roberson said.

Roberson emphasized that Pfizer in the Rocky Mount area remains a community partner, the area’s largest employer and the city’s largest utility customer.

Roberson said that this seems to him to be an effort to right-size.

“It is in everyone’s best interest that Pfizer remain healthy and take the steps that they need to do so to be healthy so they can continue to be that valued community partner they have been,” Roberson said.

Roberson said the Rocky Mount region is still seeing continued investment economically.

He pointed to the fact that the Cummins Rocky Mount Engine Plant in January announced a $580 million plan for jobs and economic growth.

Roberson also noted that at the Whitaker Business & Industry Center near the Interstate 95 interchange for Gold Rock, LS Tractor in May dedicated an acquired adjacent building to serve as a relocated warehouse to be able to store parts.

Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO David Farris, in a phone interview Friday, said, “I was surprised, but, more, my thoughts were with the families that are being affected.”

Farris said that he believes the affected employees should be able to find work due to a shortage in the local workforce.

Nash County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robbie Davis, in a phone interview Friday, said, “We don’t ever like to see any of our people get laid off.”

“We’ll just keep our fingers crossed and hope that’s the extent of it,” Davis said. “And we’ll be in touch with Pfizer and see if there’s anything our economic development team could do moving forward.”

Davis said his heart goes out to those who have been laid off.

“There are good jobs out there,” Davis said of the Pfizer plant. “They’re well-paying jobs — and we certainly hate to see any paycheck disappear from any families that we have in Nash County.”

City Councilman Reuben Blackwell, whose Ward 2 includes the Rocky Mount Pfizer plant, said via text message Friday, “Our prayers are with the individuals impacted by the Pfizer decision.”

Blackwell said that NC Works in the Twin Counties is in place to do everything possible to get those affected by layoffs back to work as quickly as possible and hopefully placed in careers that provide livable wages.

NC Works is a partnership of workforce development professionals providing a variety of services geared to help area businesses with recruiting, retention and training.

NC Works, which has career centers throughout the state, also helps residents with defining career pathways, work readiness and employment searches.

“I encourage other employers in our region to provide them with an opportunity to restart their careers,” Blackwell said.

WARN stands for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification. The federal act helps ensure advance notice by major employees in cases of plant closings and mass layoffs.

On July 9, Pfizer announced that a lengthy search process was being started to find a successor to the company’s chief scientist, Dr. Mikael Dolsten, who is leaving after a more than 15-year career with the company. Dolsten had been a key person behind the development of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The news agency Reuters reported in May that, as result of the decreasing worries about the pandemic, a steep drop in COVID product sales forced Pfizer to announce a program to cut costs by about $1.5 billion by the end of 2027.

Reuters reported that was in addition to a $4 billion cost-cutting plan that Pfizer announced in 2023.