![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/images-1-3.webp\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe company, Freight Handlers, notified state and local officials of the cuts in a pair of letters sent to meet federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the letters, Freight Handlers will no longer perform \u201cthird party unloading services\u201d at the centers starting Sept. 19. \u201cAll affected employees have been notified of their separation date and that their separation from employment will be permanent,\u201d the letter says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The jobs being cut include 127 warehouse handlers; 30 warehouse handler leads and backup leads; five department managers; four assistant production managers; and two orientation coordinators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Publix spokesperson responded to questions Tuesday about why it had decided to move on from Freight Handlers, if it used the company\u2019s services at other facilities or if it planned to retain any of the employees being laid off in an email, writing, \u201cIt is more appropriate for FHI to respond as the employees are employed by FHI.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Freight Handlers also did not respond to questions about its relationship with Publix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The North Carolina company, according to its website, was founded in 1991 and supports warehouse and supply chain operations. Among its offerings are contingent labor, managed labor, and full-truckload services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the letter, the Publix distribution centers affected by the cuts are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2600 County Line Road in Lakeland<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3045 New Tampa Highway in Lakeland<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1936 George Jenkins Blvd. in Lakeland<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3145 New Tampa Highway in Lakeland<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6123 Sawyer Road in Sarasota<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A company that unloaded merchandise at five Publix Super Markets distribution centers, four in Lakeland and one in Sarasota, is laying off 168 employees after the grocer cut its contract… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDdcL2ltYWdlcy0xLTMud2VicD9maXQ9Njc4JTJDNDUyJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiUHVibGl4IHZlbmRvciBsYXlzIG9mZiAxNjggcGVvcGxlIGluIExha2VsYW5kLCBTYXJhc290YSBhZnRlciBsb3NpbmcgY29udHJhY3QiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.rh144GWDUTeMk-x9SPCcC0LwQudNVmklGX0SdgsvQXYMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA3XC9pbWFnZXMtMS0zLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJQdWJsaXggdmVuZG9yIGxheXMgb2ZmIDE2OCBwZW9wbGUgaW4gTGFrZWxhbmQsIFNhcmFzb3RhIGFmdGVyIGxvc2luZyBjb250cmFjdCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.7gnIyHuAnLy5RQIpYc3OS50BWflSiuCXpdVzirUofXkMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[15138,15139],"class_list":["post-74372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-publix-vendor-lays-off-168-people-in-lakeland","tag-sarasota-after-losing-contract"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74374,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74372\/revisions\/74374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}