Amazon facilities in Colorado According to the WARN letters, Daifuku will lay off the largest number of its employees — 89 — from the Amazon fulfillment center near the Colorado Springs Airport on the city’s southeast side. Another 75 Daifuku employees at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Thornton and 32 at the online retailer’s Aurora sortation center also will lose their jobs — a total of 196 layoffs. Amazon facilities in Colorado
Positions being eliminated include maintenance managers and technicians, engineers and planners, the letters said.
The job action “is expected to be permanent and is precipitated by a vendor’s cancellation of a contract,” Daifuku said in its WARN letters.
Nearly 200 employees of a global company that provides operational and maintenance services for airports and industrial customers will be laid off in April from their jobs at Amazon fulfillment centers in Colorado Springs and Thornton and a sortation center in Aurora.
Daifuku Services America of suburban Dallas notified the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment on Thursday of the layoffs, which will take effect April 22. Daifuku Services is part of the Japan-based Daifuku corporation, whose businesses include consulting, engineering and design work in Asia, Europe and North America, according to its website.
Details of the layoffs were included in Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) letters that Daifuku filed with the state agency — a federal requirement for employers when they plan mass layoffs.
Although the letters didn’t specify the name of the vendor that canceled the contract with Daifuku, the addresses of its employee workplaces that were provided by the company are the Amazon facilities in Colorado Springs, Aurora and Thornton.
Daifuku officials in suburban Dallas and at a Daifuku North America office in Michigan did not immediately respond to calls and emails from The Gazette seeking more information.
Although the letters didn’t specify the name of the vendor that canceled the contract with Daifuku, the addresses of its employee workplaces that were provided by the company are the Amazon facilities in Colorado Springs, Aurora and Thornton.
Daifuku officials in suburban Dallas and at a Daifuku North America office in Michigan did not immediately respond to calls and emails from The Gazette seeking more information.
Asked about the layoffs and cancellation of the contract with Daifuku, Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson said via email: “As part of our regular course of business, we evaluate our vendors based on a number of factors and make changes to meet our business needs. As a result of a recent review, we’re changing maintenance vendors. Employees of our current vendor will have the opportunity to apply for available positions at Amazon and other contracted vendors.”
Stephenson didn’t elaborate on the work that Daifuku employees provided at the Amazon facilities, other than the company being a “maintenance vendor.”
Amazon’s fulfillment centers prepare customer orders for same-day deliveries to surrounding areas and then deliver items to a sortation center, where packages are further routed along Amazon’s delivery network.
According to the WARN letters, Daifuku will lay off the largest number of its employees — 89 — from the Amazon fulfillment center near the Colorado Springs Airport on the city’s southeast side. Another 75 Daifuku employees at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Thornton and 32 at the online retailer’s Aurora sortation center also will lose their jobs — a total of 196 layoffs.