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KANNAPOLIS Nearly 5,500 former Pillowtex workers will receive shares of $475,000, as additional and final compensation from the company's 2003 bankruptcy, union officials announced.
Pillowtex closed abruptly that year, putting 7,650 people nationwide out of work, including more than 4,000 in Cabarrus and Rowan counties, part of the largest mass layoff in N.C. history. Workers received a total distribution of about $13million in 2006.Only employees who received previous distributions under the settlement and cashed their checks are entitled to the final distribution. Checks will be dated May 10 from the Pillowtex Estate.The final distribution averages to about $85 per worker, said Harris Raynor of Workers United, SEIU.He was the chief negotiator for most of the Pillowtex union employees and is co-chair of the unsecured creditors committee in the case.While that amount is small compared with the original distribution, Raynor said, the union wanted to make sure workers got every penny they deserved from the settlement because they've endured so much.
