CIRCUIT CITY PULLS PLUG ON HUNDREDS ABOUT 650 MANAGERS LET GO INDUSTRY UNION CRITICAL.Byline: JULIA M. SCOTT Staff Writer Circuit City laid off hundreds of employees nationwide Thursday, including dozens of workers at stores in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. , Ventura County and the South Bay. The layoffs came two months after the electronics giant let 3,400 workers go, saying they were paid too much. "The company is making changes that taken together represent the next phase of our transformation," said spokeswoman Jackie Foreman. Another phase is expected to hit in June, when new store operating procedures will be implemented. The current phase saw about 650 managers, or roughly one for every Circuit City store, lose their jobs Wednesday and Thursday. At the company's headquarters in Richmond, Va., 200 of 3,100 employees were "separated" from their jobs. The company has 43,000 employees total. Some in-store positions were relocated re·lo·cate v. re·lo·cat·ed, re·lo·cat·ing, re·lo·cates v.tr. To move to or establish in a new place: relocated the business. v.intr. and others will be hired, Foreman said. The chain is moving forward with its plans to open 165 new stores, she added. Other changes at the nation's second-largest consumer-electronics retailer include stocking shelves before the stores open instead of during operating hours, and giving associates more responsibility. The layoffs drew criticism from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) is a labor union in the United States and Canada which is a semi-autonomous division of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Change to Win Federation. , which called Circuit City management "poster children for corporate irresponsibility Irresponsibility See also Carelessness, Forgetfulness. Alectryon changed to cock because he forgot to warn Mars of sun’s rising. [Rom. Myth.: LLEI, I: 322] Belch, Sir Toby Olivia’s riotous, reckless uncle. [Br. Lit. ." "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," union President Stuart Appelbaum said. In April, the union executive board voted to back a lawsuit filed by three California workers against Circuit City even though the electronics giant is not unionized. An employee who used to work at a Circuit City store in the Valley said he was called into a meeting Wednesday, his day off, only to be told his position was being eliminated. "I had an inclination inclination, in astronomy, the angle of intersection between two planes, one of which is an orbital plane. The inclination of the plane of the moon's orbit is 5°9' with respect to the plane of the ecliptic (the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun). of what was going on," said the former employee. The company declined to say whether any of those laid off was given severance The act of dividing, or the state of being divided. The term severance has unique meanings in different branches of the law. Courts use the term in both civil and criminal litigation in two ways: first, when dividing a lawsuit into two or more parts, and second, when . julia.scott(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3735 |
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