Owner Lee Mays said he will pay all employees through Jan. 3, with the same benefits, but some workers have already filed for unemployment compensation at the Texas Workforce Commission.
TWC administrator Bud Alexander said their staff is ready to help.
“We want to see them, to see if we can help them out,” said Alexander. “We can give them all the information they need to help them survive this dramatic thing.”
Alexander said the agency has a rapid response program, with literature that provides help with resume preparation, and matches workers with jobs. A TWC staff member said they had “reached out” and tried to contact Indeco owner Mays.
Anyone wanting to file for unemployment benefits with TWC can do so by phone, in person and online. Alexander said it takes three weeks after application before checks are issued.
One segment of Indeco employees, however, is still working - the truck drivers. Indeco drivers haul school desks, bookshelves and cabinets to almost anywhere in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Tommy Rodriguez said he and several other drivers would likely keep busy hauling furniture from a nearby warehouse that didn’t burn and another office furniture supplier in town.
“We’re going to keep busy, but not like before,” said the 22-year employee.
Rodriguez said his heart went out to his fellow employees in manufacturing who lost their jobs.
He said his boss’s benevolence goes beyond his commitment to continue paying his employees wages one month after the fire eliminated their jobs.
Mays donated land for an elementary school in Troy, and it was named after his mother, Edna Bigham Mays, a longtime teacher in the area.
“He’s been good to me. That’s why I’m still here,” said Rodriquez. “He’s a very fair man.”
nfafflerbach@temple-telegram.com
