Union President Blasts New Circuit City Job Cuts (5/31/07)

In the wake of a Wall Street Journal report that Circuit City will lay-off 850 more workers, the president of the 100,000-member Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) blasted the management of the electronics retailer as a “poster children for corporate irresponsibility.”
RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum made his comments in the wake of a Thursday report in the Wall Street Journal’s online edition saying that Circuit City will eliminate the jobs of 654 store managers and 200 workers at the chain’s Richmond, Virginia, headquarters. The Journal report cited an interview with Circuit City Chairman and Chief Executive Philip Schoonover.
“Circuit City’s management seems intent on leading the company into an abyss,” said Appelbaum. “Circuit City’s management doesn’t seem to understand that, at the end of the day, the only real asset it has is its employees,” he added.
Appelbaum noted that the RWDSU has already taken up the cause of the roughly 3,400 Circuit City employees who lost their jobs earlier this year and were replaced with lower-paid staff. Earlier this month the RWDSU Executive Board voted to back a lawsuit against Circuit City filed by three California workers. The union is planning additional action against the electronics retailer.
“Even though the employees at Circuit City are not members of our union, every retail worker has a stake in fighting what Circuit City is doing,” Appelbaum said. “Big chain stores have been pushing retail workers around for too long; it’s time to push back.”
The New York-based RWDSU is an affiliate of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.