$ 20M To Toys "R" Us Workers
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NYC Protest Rise Up Retail Campaign
33,000 Toys" R "was a great happy Thanksgiving for
. About 700 locations nationwide closed, leaving people with no job and no severance ̵[ads1]1; despite many having provided decades of service to the company.
But today an Important announcement came – the creation of a $ 20M fund to help support struggling families. That should make the holidays more merry; but does not solve the broader issue of both a challenging retail environment and the disregarding of employee welfare common among private equity companies. This interview with Carrie Gleason – Policy Director for Organization United for Respect (OUR) and Campaign Manager for Rise Up Retail – explains why Wall Street is taking our toys … and hurting working families and communities in th e process .
Q: What is OUR, and how did you get engaged in this issue?
Retail jobs are now the most common job in america Men landsomfattende, folk i detailhandelen er lider av lav løn, uforudsete deltids timer, begrænset adgang til fordele, og så mange andre forhindringer. This has been fueled by the industry executives and Wall Street power brokers who are more concerned with the extraction of every last cent of profit than they are in investing and empowering the frontline workforce on which their businesses depend.
Organization United for Respect (OUR) er et voksende nettverk av folk fra de største detailkæder i landet som har forenet sig med at udfordre de corporate styrker – fra Wall Street til Main Street – det er short-changing working families. We've made some serious progress. At Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, OUR leaders have pushed the company to raise wages for more than 1.5 million employees expanded family leave and strengthen policies against pregnancy discrimination .
But high-risk financial investments have generated a massive financial crisis in the retail sector that destroys viable businesses and hundreds of thousands of jobs. When 33,000 Toys "R" Us families found out that the company they loved was shutting down this year and they all would be losing their jobs without a dime or severance pay, they sprung into action.
For months, courageous Toys "R "Us employees have brought attention to their plight fighting for nearly $ 75 million owed in severance pay with coast-to-coast activism rooted in an innovative" online-to-offline "organizing model, which allowed team members to mobilize fixed numbers quickly. & nbsp; Across the country, Toys "R" Us workers staged protests at closing stores spoke out publicly and called for accountability .
Just this week , tens of thousands of Toys "R" Us employees made history in the creation of a $ 20 million Toys "R" Us Financial Assistance Fund by two of the company's former owners – KKR and Bain Capital. The deal comes amid the company's highly-scrutinized liquidation and the shuttering of more than 700 locations nationwide, which left thousands of employees, many with decades of service to the company, with no severance.
For months, former Toys "R" Our employees and their allies – Organization for Respect (OUR) and its Rise Up Retail campaign, together with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project and the Center for Popular Democracy – have called for fair treatment. The Fund represents the first important step in ensuring that Toys "R" Us employees who lost their lifelihood receive the support they were promised and deserved. Og det er et unprecedented move for å hjelpe tusindvis af familier, der står over for økonomiske problemer som følge af forretningsstørrelsen og bankrupthederne plaguing the industry.
Vores og vores partnerorganisationer har kæmpet for en bedre detailhandel earn a living wage, are given respect on the job, and receive a fair shake from the mega corporations where many have spent their entire careers.
Q: Many consumers have been left confused – what the hell happened to Toys "R "Us"
The downfall of Toys "R" Us, one of our country's most prominent retail brands, is emblematic of the toxic corporate forces that are profiting off of gutting retail companies and selling off their remains.
KKR, Bain Capital, and Vornado Realty Trust purchased Toys "R" Us in a leveraged $ 6.6 billion buyout in 2005 to take the company private. At the time, Toys "R" Us was bringing in $ 11 billion in sales annually. Toys "R" Us became responsible for paying off the massive debt accumulated by the new owners, who had borrowed 80 percent of the funds they used to purchase the company . Uiteindelijk, de toenemende druk van e-commerce samengesteld door de schuld, dwong het bedrijf naar het bestand voor bankruptcy last jaar. & nbsp;
In March, Toys "R" Us' creditors – a group of hedge funds including Solus Alternative Asset Management, Angelo, Gordon & amp; Company, Franklin Templeton, Highland Capital Management and Oaktree Capital, among others & nbsp; – chose to liquidate the company, turning down several viable business offers that would have saved hundreds of stores and thousands of jobs.
More than 33,000 former Toys " R "Us employees – many of them with decades of service to the company – laid off with no way to provide for their families. Throughout the company's history, Toys "R" Us paid severance when an employee was laid off. KKR and Bain created a $ 20 million Financial Assistance Fund to offer impacted families some much- needed support. Men mange af firmaets kreditorer og formannere, inklusive Vornado, Angelo Gordon, og Solus Alternative Asset Management, fortsatt nekte å bidra til dette fund, som vil hjælpe tusinder i nød.
Q: Hvad kunne investorer have gjort forskelligt? What is their responsibility vs. the PE firms themselves?
More than anything, investors in retail companies and the Wall Street companies that prey on the industry need to be aware of what these companies are doing and keep them accountable for their bad behavior. Investors had incredible power to drive change, but it's critical that they use this power for good. & nbsp;
Leaders with Rise Up Retail have been pushing key investors in these companies to do just that. As a result of our efforts, pension funds across the country – including in Minnesota, Washington and NYC – & nbsp; are expressing concern and support for the Toys "R" Us families.
Q: Who are these investors anyway? Retail-level? Pension funds? Etc
What may surprise people is just how interwoven these predatory Wall Street firms are in the circles of power that influence our lives. Many state and municipal pension funds are heavily invested in private equity companies and hedge funds that saddled Toys "R" Us with unmanageable debt and forced the company into liquidation. Outgoing Florida Governor Rick Scott has invested millions of dollars in Angelo Gordon's funds including those involved in profiting from the widespread financial destruction and hardship seen in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
These investors have only the power to push for greater accountability from Wall Street, but have a responsibility to the constituents and the communities they serve to do the right thing. Dit massieve werk verliep dat we zien disproportionately impact vrouwen die werken op de frontlines. The spillover of retail bankruptcies and large closures has created a retail "rest belt," fueling an erosion of vital commercial tax bases and hurting vulnerable local economies nationwide.
Rise Up Retail leaders at a Toys R Us protest in New York City Rise Up Retail Campaign
Q: Toys "R" Us is a visible case, but clearly reflecting the overall trends in the sector. What are other cases?
The collapse of Toys "R" Us at the expense of working people is just one piece of a larger picture.
Private equity leveraged buyouts like Toys "R" Us have already accounted for 61 percent of the total 219,000 retail jobs lost in 2016 and 2017 . In the grocery sector alone, seven major retail chains, employing more than 125,000 workers, were pillaged and pushed into bankruptcy by private equity owners .
Just as concerns, this massive extraction of wealth from major American employers is expose a huge gap in protections for working people – the financial practices employed by Wall Street that put American jobs at risk are, in fact, completely legal.
In the last few months alone, we have witnessed the downfall of Sears , which filed for bankruptcy after over a decade of ownership by ESL investments, a hedge fund. While Sears CEO Eddie Lampert has been pulling in hundreds of millions into his personal bank account, ESL has been stripping assets from Sears over the last several years spinning off real estate owned by the company and several brands. & nbsp; More than 200,000 Sears and Kmart workers have been thrown out of work over the years as a result of Eddie Lampert and ESL's financial engineering. Ten of thousands of current Sears employees face layoffs as the company shutters more than a hundred stores.
But it's not just private equity companies who are selling their workforce for a quick buck and juice for their stock prices. Mens hundrevis av tusenvis av Walmarts deltidsansatte kan stadig ikke tjene en levende løn, har virksomheden deployet milliarder til at købe egne aktier.
Q: For investorer som bryr sig om arbejdstageres velfærd, hvordan kan de være en del or reversing this trend?
Many investors, including large pension funds and others already have strong Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies or practices in place to ensure that their investments are not only sustainable, but also will minimize risk in favor or greater returns. Investors kan sikre at deres investeringsansvarlige er ansvarlige for disse ESG-standarder, og bør være villige til å stoppe investeringer med ledere hvis de ikke reagerer korrekt på ESG-interesser. & nbsp;
For more on investing with impact, check out Morgan's book.
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NYC Protest Rise Up Retail Campaign
It was not gearing up to be a particularly happy Thanksgiving for 33,000 Toys "R" Us workers laid off this year . About 700 locations nationwide closed, leaving people with no job and no severance – despite many having provided decades of service to the company by extension, its shareholders).
But today an important announcement came – the creation of a $ 20M fund to help support struggling families. That should make the holidays more merry; but does not solve the broader issue of both a challenging retail environment, and the disregarding of employee welfare common among private equity firms. This interview with Carrie Gleason – Policy Director for Organization United for Respect (OUR) and Campaign Manager for Rise Up Retail – explains why Wall Street is taking our t oys … and hurting working families and communities in the process .
Q: What is OUR, and how did you get engaged in this issue?
Retail jobs are now the most common job in america Men landsomfattende, folk i detailhandelen er lider av lav løn, uforudsete deltids timer, begrænset adgang til fordele, og så mange andre forhindringer. This has been fueled by the industry executives and Wall Street power brokers who are more concerned with the extraction of every last cent of profit than they are in investing and empowering the frontline workforce on which their businesses depend.
Organization United for Respect (OUR) er et voksende nettverk av folk fra de største detailkæder i landet som har forenet sig med at udfordre de corporate styrker – fra Wall Street til Main Street – det er short-changing working families. We've made some serious progress. At Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, OUR leaders have pushed the company to raise wages for more than 1.5 million employees expanded family leave and strengthen policies against pregnancy discrimination .
But high-risk financial investments have generated a massive financial crisis in the retail sector that destroys viable businesses and hundreds of thousands of jobs. When 33,000 Toys "R" Us families found out that the company they loved was shutting down this year and they all would be losing their jobs without a dime or severance pay, they sprung into action.
For months, courageous Toys "R "Us employees have brought attention to their plight fighting for nearly $ 75 million owed in severance pay with coast-to-coast activism rooted in an innovative" online-to-offline "organizing model, which allowed team members to mobilize fixed numbers quickly. Across the country, Toys "R" Us workers staged protests at closing stores spoke out publicly and called for accountability .
Just this week, tens of thousands of Toys "R" Us employees made history in the creation of a $ 20 million Toys "R" Us Financial Assistance Fund by two of the company's former owners – KKR and Bain Capital. The deal comes amid the company's highly-scrutinized liquidation and the shuttering of more than 700 locations nationwide, which left thousands of employees, many with decades of service to the company, with no severance.
For months, former Toys "R" Us employees and their allies – Organization for Respect (OUR) and its Rise Up Retail campaign, along with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project and Center for Popular Democracy – have called for fair treatment. The Fund represents the first important step in ensuring that Toys "R" Us employees who lost their lifelihood receive the support they were promised and deserved. Og det er et unprecedented move for å hjelpe tusindvis af familier, der står over for økonomiske problemer som følge af forretningsstørrelsen og bankrupthederne plaguing the industry.
Vores og vores partnerorganisationer har kæmpet for en bedre detailhandel earn a living wage, are given respect on the job, and receive a fair shake from the mega corporations where many have spent their entire careers.
Q: Many consumers have been left confused – what the hell happened to Toys "R "Us"
The downfall of Toys "R" Us, one of our country's most prominent retail brands, is emblematic of the toxic corporate forces that are profiting off of gutting retail companies and selling off their remains.
KKR, Bain Capital, and Vornado Realty Trust bought Toys "R" Us in a leveraged $ 6.6 billion buyout in 2005 to take the company private. At the time, Toys "R" Us was bringing in $ 11 billion in sales annually. Toys "R" Us became responsible for paying off the massive debt accumulated by the new owners, who had borrowed 80 percent of the funds they used to purchase the company. . Uiteindelijk, de toenemende druk van e-commerce samengesteld door de schuld, dwong het bedrijf naar het bestand voor bankruptcy last jaar.
In March, Toys "R" Us' creditors – a group of hedge funds including Solus Alternative Asset Management, Angelo, Gordon & Company, Franklin Templeton, Highland Capital Management and Oaktree Capital, among others – chose to liquidate the company,
More than 33,000 former Toys "R" Us employees – many of them with decades of service to the company ] – laid off with no way to provide for their families. Throughout the company's history, Toys "R" Us paid severance when an employee was laid off. KKR and Bain created a $ 20 million Financial Assistance Fund to offer impacted families some much- needed support. Men mange af firmaets kreditorer og formannere, inklusive Vornado, Angelo Gordon, og Solus Alternative Asset Management, fortsatt nekte å bidra til dette fund, som vil hjælpe tusinder i nød.
Q: Hvad kunne investorer have gjort forskelligt? What is their responsibility vs. the PE firms themselves?
More than anything, investors in retail companies and the Wall Street companies that prey on the industry need to be aware of what these companies are doing and keep them accountable for their bad behavior. Investors had incredible power to drive change, but it's critical that they use this power for good.
Leaders with Rise Up Retail have been pushing key investors in these companies to do just that. As a result of our efforts, pension funds across the country – including in Minnesota, Washington and NYC – are expressing concern and support for the Toys "R" Us families.
Q: Who are these investors anyway? Retail-level? Pension funds? Etc
What may surprise people is just how interwoven these predatory Wall Street firms are in the circles of power that influence our lives. Many state and municipal pension funds are heavily invested in private equity companies and hedge funds that saddled Toys "R" Us with unmanageable debt and forced the company into liquidation. Outgoing Florida Governor Rick Scott has invested millions of dollars in Angelo Gordon's funds including those involved in profiting from the widespread financial destruction and hardship seen in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
These investors have only the power to push for greater accountability from Wall Street, but have a responsibility to the constituents and the communities they serve to do the right thing. Dit massieve werk verliep dat we zien disproportionately impact vrouwen die werken op de frontlines. The spillover of retail bankruptcies and large closures has created a retail "resting belt," fueling an erosion of vital commercial tax bases and hurting vulnerable local economies nationwide.
Rise Up Retail leaders at a Toys R Us protest in New York City Rise Up Retail Campaign
Q: Toys "R" Us is a visible case, but clearly reflecting overall trends in the sector. What are other cases?
The collapse of Toys "R" Us at the expense of working people is just one piece of a larger picture.
Private equity leveraged buyouts like Toys "R" Us have already accounted for 61 percent of the total 219,000 retail jobs lost in 2016 and 2017 . In the grocery sector alone, seven major retail chains, employing more than 125,000 workers, were pillaged and pushed into bankruptcy by private equity owners .
Just as concerns, this massive extraction of wealth from major American employers is expose a huge gap in protections for working people – the financial practices employed by Wall Street that put American jobs at risk are, in fact, completely legal.
In the last few months alone, we have witnessed the downfall of Sears , which filed for bankruptcy after over a decade of ownership by ESL investments, a hedge fund. While Sears CEO Eddie Lampert has been pulling in hundreds of millions into his personal bank account, ESL has been stripping assets from Sears over the last several years spinning off real estate owned by the company and several brands. More than 200,000 Sears and Kmart workers have been thrown out of work over the years as a result of Eddie Lampert and ESL's financial engineering. Ten of thousands of current Sears employees face layoffs as the company shutters more than a hundred stores.
But it's not just private equity companies who are selling their workforce for a quick buck and juice for their stock prices. Mens hundrevis av tusenvis av Walmarts deltidsansatte kan stadig ikke tjene en levende løn, har virksomheden deployet milliarder til at købe egne aktier.
Q: For investorer som bryr sig om arbejdstageres velfærd, hvordan kan de være en del or reversing this trend?
Many investors, including large pension funds and others already have strong Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies or practices in place to ensure that their investments are not only sustainable, but also will minimize risk in favor or greater returns. Investors kan sikre at deres investeringsansvarlige er ansvarlige for disse ESG-standarder, og bør være villige til å stoppe investeringer med ledere hvis de ikke reagerer korrekt på ESG-interesser.
For more on how to invest with impact, check out Morgan's book.
