PenFed credit union workers in Eugene face ‘impossible choice’

Employees say more than 100 told they have to relocate or be out of a job

More than 100 workers at Pentagon Federal Credit Union in Eugene are being told to relocate across the country or find a new job after the company announced this week it was consolidating departments and moving many workers in Oregon and Virginia to Texas.

Representatives with the company — also known as PenFed — announced in a meeting Tuesday that workers in those states under the mortgage umbrella and those in Eugene’s information technology department were being moved to a more centralized location of San Antonio, according to workers at the Eugene location. Some mortgage jobs from Eugene are being relocated to Frisco, Texas.

PenFed could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon. Internal documents announcing the change, received by The Register-Guard from the bank workers advocacy group Committee for Better Banks, cited being over capacity at the Eugene building, a lack of parking and employees being located far from managers as the reasons for the change.

To those employees who received notice that they would have to move to keep their job, it doesn’t feel like an option at all and instead is described as “forced layoffs,” workers from the Eugene location said.

“If you can’t or don’t want to move to Texas then you’re going to be shoved out,” said Michael Sale, who works at the Eugene location for eight and a half years. He was one of the employees who received a relocation notice this week.

The company was financially strong at the end of 2018, according to its annual report. Last year, the company grew its assets from $1.6 billion to $24.5 billion and added just over 180,000 new members.

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