Trévon Austin
The home improvement retailer Lowe’s announced an unspecified number of layoffs, expected to number in the thousands. According to the company and its employees, layoffs will consist of assemblers, who piece together items for customers, and maintenance and facility-service jobs such as janitors. Lowe’s will outsource these jobs to third-party companies.
“We are moving to third-party assemblers and facility services to allow Lowe’s store associates to spend more time on the sales floor serving customers,” a spokesperson for Lowe’s said.
The layoffs at the home improvement giant coincide with the further contraction of the retail sector of the economy. On Tuesday, Walgreens announced it will close 200 US stores, a few months after the pharmacy giant said it planned to cut $1.5 billion in annual costs by 2022. The shutdowns, whose locations have not yet been revealed, will start in the fall. On Wednesday competitor CVS Health said it would reduce the number of stores it planned to open over the next few years from 300 to 150 after announcing in May that it was closing 46 under-performing stores.
Although Lowe’s refused to say how many jobs will be lost, the company said the targeted workers will receive transition pay and have an opportunity to apply for other open positions. According to a securities filing in February, Lowe’s employed approximately 190,000 full-time and 110,000 part-time employees in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Lowe’s employees expressed indignation about the company’s move and CEO on The Layoff, an anonymous online discussion board for mass layoffs.
One worker said, “[The CEO] really is a sack of s–t. He doesn’t care one bit about ANY employee..”
“Lowe’s doesn’t create jobs without taking away jobs. In order to build the technology center in Charlotte Marvin [Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison] needed funding while at the same time he needs to increase the dividends paid to shareholders,” another said.
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