Logistics company increases number of Tampa layoffs eightfold

A week after LGSTX Cargo Services told state officials it was laying off 26 employees in Tampa, it has sent a second letter increasing the number of jobs to be cut to 217.

The new letter is identical to the first except in that it lists the higher number of employees, 191, and includes a different list of positions affected. It is unclear why the letters were posted on the state’s Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification’s database a week apart.

Ernie Hayes, the director of human resources for Airborne Global Solutions, LGSTX’s Ohio-based parent company, would not comment on the layoffs Tuesday and said he would pass a message requesting comment along to the company’s head of marketing. That message was never returned.

The past few days have been bruising for the region’s labor market with news of layoffs coming at a head spinning rate. With the additional 191 jobs posted to the state’s database Tuesday, since Aug. 14 word has come that 596 jobs have been or are about to be eliminated along the Gulf Coast.

But it’s not just the region. According to postings to the WARN database, in the past nine days, 288 jobs were lost at a CVS Health facility in Plantation, 121 jobs were cut at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach on Miami Beach,, and 57 jobs were cut at Centerra in Cape Canaveral, joining the 524 statewide jobs cut — 116 locally — after the trucking company Yellow Corp.’s collapsed.

The question bound to be asked is whether this is the beginning of difficult times or just a stretch of really bad luck. Unfortunately, the answer will only come with time.

According to LGSTX’s letter, which was sent to meet federal WARN Notice requirements, the job losses are the result of the company permanently ceasing operations at its 4736 N. Hoover Blvd. location in Tampa.

In the letter, the ground support company’s president, James T. Pradetto, writes that “the layoff is the result of the sudden and unforeseen decision made by a customer to terminate operations services.”

The layoffs are effective Oct. 12.