NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Big Y Foods Inc. last week announced that it was asking its full-time employees to take voluntary layoffs. The Chicopee-based grocery chain sent a press release to certain media, it was reported in Masslive on Thursday. iBerkshires did not receive a statement from the company and a phone call to coporate headquarters on Tuesday to confirm if Berkshire County stores were included was not immediately returned.
The chain has three stores in Berkshire County: Adams, North Adams and Great Barrington. It operates 57 stores in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
According to several media outlets that received the statement, the voluntary layoffs were to begin on Monday. The chain has 9,100 workers to did not say how many were full time or how many would be asked to take time off.
The chain closed its East Hartford, Conn., store a year ago, laying off 100 workers, and shed 300 more two months later, saying it was part of a new operational strcture.
According to the company's Web site, it was ranked the second largest employer in Western Mass. in 2006 by Business West and as the eighth-largest private company in the area by Boston Business Journal.
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