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 forwarded from alt.activism
 From: ww@nyxfer.UUCP
 Subject: Labor Fights Layoffs at Sears

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit


NEW ORLEANS ACTIVISTS CHALLENGE SEARS SHUTDOWN

By Johnnie Stevens
New Orleans

Sears management's announcement it would close four stores in the
New Orleans area as part of its nationwide slashing of jobs has 
aroused local resistance.

Organizers in the Job Is A Right Campaign in New Orleans have 
called a Feb. 4 meeting to form an emergency committee to oppose 
the Sears closings. The group has called upon President Bill 
Clinton and Congress to use emergency powers to stop any new mass
layoffs and reverse the job losses of recent years.

After laying off 48,000 workers in 1991, on Jan. 26 Sears 
announced a new round of 50,000 layoffs nationally. With that 
announcement, Sears management said it would close its store in 
The Plaza in Lake Forest within 90 days. Other stores in Baker, 
Gonzales and La Place will also close. Some 300 jobs will be 
eliminated locally. 

The Sears closings will add to the already high unemployment 
figures in New Orleans. This is expected to bring even more 
hardship to the already hard-pressed communities of Black, Latin 
and other low-income working people. The direct layoffs will 
indirectly cause a loss of over 100 more jobs in community 
stores, gas stations, schools and colleges.

Youths and their families will be especially hard hit, as their 
families will lose many benefits.

The specific demands of the Job Is A Right Campaign are:

* President Clinton issue an executive order barring corporations
such as Sears from putting massive layoffs and plant closings 
into effect.

* An emergency session of Congress be called to make concrete 
plans to rehire and absorb into the economy all workers fired and
laid off.

* Clinton order a moratorium on layoffs and plant closings for 
all Fortune 500 companies.

The campaign can be reached at P.O. Box 56812, New Orleans, La. 
70156; phone (504) 364-5907.

                               -30-


CAMPAIGN TO STOP SEARS LAYOFFS IN DC

By Mary Owen
Washington

The Movement for a Peoples Assembly has launched a petition 
campaign here to stop Sears, a Fortune 500 corporation, from 
closing its only D.C. store and laying off 175 workers. This 
effort is part of the national A Job Is A Right Campaign 
demanding jobs and an end to furloughs at Sears and other 
multi-billion-dollar corporations.

"The Sears layoffs and store closings are motivated by greed," 
says the D.C. A Job Is A Right petition. "They're calculated to 
maintain the highest profit margin for the owners and top 
managers of Sears, while ignoring the years of sacrifice by Sears
workers who they are now about to throw out of work."

The D.C. Sears is also the last moderately priced department 
store available to city residents who depend on public 
transportation. It is located near a Metro stop and within the 
city fare zone.

"Youth unemployment in our city has reached double-digit figures.
Adult unemployment is also high," says the petition. "The closing
of Sears and the permanent termination of the workers at this 
store will only worsen an already horrible crisis."

On the first day of the campaign, Sears workers and community 
residents were signing the petition at a rate of 100 names an 
hour. The petition demands:

* No layoffs, no store closing.

* D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly and D.C. Congressional Delegate 
Eleanor Holmes Norton use their powers such as eminent domain to 
protect the people of Washington by banning the closing of this 
Sears, Roebuck store.

* President Clinton issue an executive order declaring an 
economic emergency and prohibiting Sears and other corporations 
like GM, IBM and Kodak from closing stores, plants and work 
places and laying off workers.

* Congress call an emergency session with one agenda item--jobs!

For information, contact MPA Job Is A Right Campaign, 1470 Irving
Street, NW, Washington, D.C., (202) 332-5041.

                               -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted 
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; via e-mail: ww%nyxfer@igc.apc.org or
workers@mcimail.com.)


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