Illinois

People who run local production or distribution sites are not upper management.
After 30 something years of trucking milk to supermarkets (and moving it into the stores, doing inventory control & returns, and sales) an EVP of the parent company accidentally met my dad. (He was on vacation and went in for his commission check.)
Anyway, the EVP told the general manager he was negligent for having a guy like my dad still delivering.
So, my dad got the job of distribution manager at a place in the NW suburbs.
That lasted about 4 years. Then, one Wednesday he got a call and was told the distribution center & the parent dairy were closing permanently on Friday. That was it.
All drivers, all dairy workers, all loaders, all office staff, all management. 2 days notice.
My dad called the GM of the dairy and they hadn't called him yet.
Ten minutes later, the GM called him back & said he got the same call.
Now, I'd bet a hundred bucks that you are right about sctual upper management getting rewarded for cost reduction.
I'd bet another $100 that the branch management was equally blind-sided.