Saturday, January 07, 2006
Layoffs catch Kmart workers by surprise
A 22-year employee said that at least five full-timers were let go at the Salem store.
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Kathy Jones, who is recovering from breast cancer, just received some of the worst news that she has heard in the 22 years she has worked at Kmart in Salem.
She was laid off there Wednesday, where she had worked in most every job from selling plants in the garden center to placing price tags on items as a merchandiser.
"I went hysterical because they gave us no warning," said Jones, who said the store manager took her to a back room Wednesday and read her a statement about the company downsizing. "We built that company. We worked hard, blood and sweat."
Jones, 51, said she is one of at least five full-time employees who was laid off at the Salem Kmart store on Main Street this week, and she's one of likely thousands of Kmart employees across the country who have been given similar news.
Kmart spokesman Chris Brathwaite said the company, based in Illinois, is reorganizing its stores and laying off and adding some employees. He would not disclose how many employees have been laid off in Roanoke Valley stores or in Kmart's more than 1,400 stores in the United States. Kmart has two stores in Roanoke and one in Salem.
"We are not breaking down information," Brathwaite said. "Each store is being impacted differently."
The Roanoke Valley's Kmart store managers would not comment about the layoffs.
Jones said she's noticed some changes in the past year at the Salem Kmart. Kmart merged with Sears, Roebuck and Co. in 2005 and created Sears Holding Co., the third largest retailer in the country.
The employees' sick days were reduced from five to four days, and Jones was told that she could only have four weeks of vacation, though employees with her seniority used to have five weeks. The company also switched insurance carriers to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
The plan was not as comprehensive as the company's previous one, and it required a $500 deductible, Jones said. She had surgery in 2004 to remove one of her breasts and still is taking cancer medicine.
Jones said employees were used to having their hours cut back to 32 from 40 a week after the holiday season, when sales were typically slow at Kmart for several months.
But employees usually resumed normal work schedules once spring hit.
All of the Salem employees who were laid off were full-timers and had been working at the Salem Kmart for at least 15 years, said Beverly Sachenbacher, 59, who worked there for 18 years and was laid off Thursday.
Those employees also were all older than 40, she said.
Sachenbacher said she heard from a former Kmart employee that the stores planned to hire part-time employees. Sachenbacher said she was not offered the opportunity to apply for a part-time position at the Salem Kmart.
She has applied for unemployment, and Jones recently was hired by Hamrick's, a clothing store that will open this spring at Cave Spring Corners in Roanoke County.
She's not sure when she will start the job, but she'll begin to receive benefits after she has worked there for 90 days.
"It's not near the money that it was [at Kmart], but it's a job, and it's benefits," Jones said. "I hope to work for them as hard as I did for Kmart."
Jones made $13 an hour at Kmart. A single mother, she has worked additional part-time jobs cleaning at a local church and at a lawyer's office.
Brathwaite said Kmart's restructuring does not affect Sears stores, which struggled during the holiday shopping season and reported a 12 percent drop in December sales. The Kmart chain's sales rose 1 percent.
