RWDSU Executive Board Meets, Votes to Join Lawsuit Against Circuit City, Examines New Organizing Strategies (5/9/07)

During the first day of a three-day meeting, the RWDSU Executive Board today

voted to back a lawsuit against Circuit City Stores, Inc., filed by three
California workers who say that they and 3,400 other workers lost their jobs
because the electronics retailer said they earned too much.

The RWDSU Executive Board approved a motion to file an amicus brief in the case
and expressed outrage at the company's behavior. "Circuit City can't be
allowed to get away with this unchallenged," said RWDSU President Stuart
Appelbaum.

At the meeting, the union's executive board also discussed the changing nature
of the workplace and examined new strategies and models for organizing. Janice
Fine, professor of Labor Studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey, started
the discussion with a description of the innovative work being done by worker
centers across the U.S. RWDSU organizers spoke about the union's new strategies
to organize retail workers through the union's Retail Action Project.

The union's finances were also reviewed at the meeting. The board voted
unanimously not to take a per capita tax increase allowed by the union's
constitution.

RWDSU organizers describe a new model for union organizing.

Rutgers professor Janice Fine leads a discussion on worker centers.