Image Credit: Microvast Inc. / Facebook & Canva
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Microvast, the China-based electric vehicle battery producer, is now facing a class-action lawsuit after a string of sudden layoffs at their Clarksville facility.
According to the lawsuit, Microvast allegedly violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act by failing to provide employees with a minimum 60-day notice before enacting a number of layoffs.
The plaintiff, identified as Deidra Milan, filed the lawsuit on behalf of herself and “those similarly situated after she was on April 19, 2024. 44 others were also let go at the same time, with terminations continuing up until May 17. The lawsuit states that more than a third of Microvasts employees were terminated.
The lawsuit alleges that Microvast violated the WARN Act by letting those employees go without giving them notice. It also notes that many of the employees had relocated to the Clarksville area because of that employment.
In February 2021, Microvast announced plans to build an electric vehicle battery plant in Clarksville, vowing to create approximately 300 jobs for the area. While the facility remains unfinished, the company has begun to decrease their production plans as they seek an additional $150 million worth of funding to complete it.
Microvast told Clarksville Now that they are still committed to hiring 230 workers by 2025, but it is unclear just how they intend to do so when they are getting rid of employees across all of their facilities, not just the new Clarksville location.
“Once a financing solution is in place, we will resume operations to finish the project, including hiring of appropriate staff,” Microvast officials stated.
The lawsuit will cover all employees who were laid off within 90 days of April 19, 2024.
4 Responses
EV is a joke. Tennessee got played.
Not a Chinese Based Company, based in Houston Texas since 2006, with manufacturing in China and Germany! LIKE MANY OTHER US TECH COMPANIES! They were trying to get that factory going in Tenn
( yes, bring new manufacturing jobs to America ) with many Veteran employees, but with Media and Politicians labeling them Chinese, you people have hurt those Veterans working there! Nice work, typical media and news reporting, without all the true facts!!
Geo Raim is spot on. This “Tennessee Conservative News” story is the usual misinformation hit piece, dripping in prevarications; excluding key facts and misrepresenting others. Take 10 minutes and do some reading to realize this “Tennessee Conservative News” organization or at least the author of this article has a serious problem with journalistic integrity. But then again, so did Goebbels.
If you know someone who was affected by the layoffs, you can blame the DOE for not assisting them in getting Clarksville plant up and running before running out of funds. The DOE pulled 200 million and made it so MVST was short money. My cousin was laid off.