Circuit City fires 3,400, will hire lower-paid workers - by Keith Darce and Mike Freeman, Bend Weekly, OR
Layoffs and buyouts have been common as companies respond to pressures from Wall Street and global competitors. Last year, for example, 72,000 U.S. auto workers agreed to leave their jobs or take early retirement. And a growing number of companies, including the Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons grocery chains in Southern California, have adopted two-tier systems that provide lower wages and less valuable benefits to newer employees.
But the Circuit City approach is different.
'What you're looking at (with Circuit City) is that strategy on steroids,' said Jared Bernstein, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., research group that focuses on labor issues."