CIRCUIT CITY -- UNFAIR

STOP the JOB & WAGE CUTS

Hire back the 3,400 workers and restore their pay
“An Injury to One, is an Injury to All”

Circuit City recently fired 3,400 workers so that wages can be drastically cut. Workers with twenty and thirty years experience came to work and were told to pack their things and to get out. They were given no notice and no preparation.

Instead of the usual corporate charade in which workers are cut now and the announcement about hiring lower-wage workers is done months later, Circuit City said it was eliminating the workers because their salaries were too high—and that the same workers could apply for their former jobs at lower pay after a 10 week delay.

There is of course no word from Circuit City Headquarters that it’s CEO Philip Schoonover who was paid $8.52 million in 2006, including a $975,000 salary will be axed to save a few bucks.

The May 1st Coalition for Immigrant Rights feels strongly that what happens at Circuit City impacts the entire community and all workers. The trend by multi-billion dollar corporations to cut workers and wages and to eliminate pensions and health care while profits soar must be fought by everyone. We want the workers at Circuit City to know that they are not alone that we support them.

It is why we are saying “An injury to one is an injury to all” and why we are picketing outside of Circuit City to demand that the workers get their jobs and pay back.

The fight for decent wages, jobs, health care and pensions is very much connected to the campaign for immigrant rights. The racist divide and conquer tactic of targeting and scapegoating immigrants to divide us and divert our attention from corporate crimes and outrages must be opposed. Immigrants are not the cause of low wages—big businesses like Circuit City are responsible.

If the recent terrorists-like raids across the country succeed in forcing immigrant workers into the shadows of society where they can be paid sub-minimum wages—then all workers lose. Immigrant rights are workers rights. The May 1st Coalition invites all workers to join together on May 1, Tuesday, 4 P.M. at Union Square to MARCH & RALLY together for the May 1 “Great American Boycott II for Immigrant and Workers Rights”.

Statement issued: 7 April 2007