Former employees sue Racine lighting company

Racine‘s Cree Lighting is facing two class-action lawsuits after terminating 172 employees in March.

Two separate complaints filed in federal court March 19 allege Cree Lighting violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires employers with 100 or more employees to give at least a 60-day notice before a mass layoff. Wisconsin’s Business Closing and Mass Layoff law applies to employers of at least 50 staff and also has a 60-day requirement. Cree staff weren’t given adequate notice they would be losing their jobs, the complaints argue.

Cree on March 12 sent a letter to employees in Racine to notify them that on the following day 172 positions would be permanently eliminated, months after the company on Oct. 1, 2025 during a meeting announced a large portion of its staff would be furloughed, according to the complaints.

To be sure it was a mass layoff, Cree in an email included in one complaint stated the company would “experience a ‘plant closing’ and/or ‘mass layoff’” that would result in the “permanent closure” of at least one operating unit.

The employees who filed the suits hope to be repaid lost wages and benefits for the 60 days before termination.

Cree allegedly never gave a notice of the coming layoffs between the furlough announcement and the termination notice.

Eliminating so many positions at the Racine plant means the loss of roughly a third of the entire company workforce, according to one complaint.

The news comes after Cree on Feb. 26 announced a “long-term contract manufacturing agreement with a highly regarded U.S. lighting manufacturer specializing in industrial and harsh environment applications.”

Cree also this year faced several lawsuits from vendors that sold parts to the company, amounting to more than $1.7 million in claimed unpaid balances.

A Cree spokesperson in an email said the company is “confident that any actions will be resolved positively.”