Citigroup Plans to Lay Off A Third Of Cleaning Force While Taking Bailout Money
Just two weeks after Sam Stein first reported Citigroup's anti-union assault on the Employee Free Choice Act, the financial behemoth is taking their fight directly to the workers. Citigroup plans a second round of layoffs to their cleaning force -- a move that would displace over one-third of their cleaning force for six New York City properties.
As the recipient of a $50 billion tax-payer bailout, Citigroup has come under fire for its corporate spending practices, including a planned $10 million renovation of corporate office suites and a $7.7 million bonus for embattled CEO Vikram Pandit. In laying off these 107 workers, Citi's total savings amount to just over $6.5 million, substantially less than either of those elective expenditures.
In response to the expected layoffs, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) brought a proposal to Citi on Monday. The proposal calls for cutting the number of layoffs and including severance pay and COBRA health insurance to alleviate the impact on those who will become unemployed.
The move pits Citgroup -- who recently hosted a conference call to galvanize opposition to the pro-labor Employee Free Choice Act and who downgraded its assessment of Wal-Mart in response to the retailer's overture to unions -- against 32BJ SEIU, the largest property service worker union in the country.
"We were disappointed, to say the least, when they came to us with this," said Matthew Nerzig, a spokesman for 32BJ SEIU. "After reviewing the occupancy of these buildings, we see no justifiable reason for laying off a third of their workforce. It's out of proportion with what's needed and crosses the line of decency and fairness."
Citigroup refused to comment for this story and referred calls to Cushman & Wakefield, the property management company contracted by Citi. Cushman & Wakefield released a statement saying, "We are engaged in good faith negotiations with SEIU Local 32BJ and are working on a solution that will be responsive to market conditions and the issues raised by the union. We have and continue to comply with both the spirit and letter of the current bargaining agreement and hope to resolve the matter to everyone's satisfaction."
Nerzig and SEIU put the blame squarely on Citi's shoulders. "Building owners, and not their agents, decide these matters. And in this case, it's Citibank that is pulling the strings," Nerzig responded.
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Too serious an article to write anything sarcastic. It reports several incredibly coldblooded moves of this bank's top managers. Should be all over the news media.
On the side: My search for an alternative to having an account with BoA brought me to a local credit union, that offers extremely good banking services while not attacking my life philosophy and without using my money to fight the interests of my fellow countryfolks. There are alternatives out there.
At it's worst sense, Capitalism = Exploitation.
At least these workers have a Union at their backs. The dirty little secret in this economic downturn is the number of corporations, law firms, manufacturers who have used this occasion to rid themselves of their older, unhealthy (big insurance claims), highest paid, disabled, female and other protected class employees. When the dust settles, these entities will be staffed by young, healthy, lower paid, White males in disproportionate numbers. There is no principle of "last in, first out" at work in the current layoff trend. This is just too enticing of an opportunity for greedy corporations to rid themselves of these once "protected" class of workers under cover of the economic downturn. The EEOC is reporting huge increases in the number of Charges it is handling from these "protected" people. Of course, those who are not in the protected classes may not appreciate how wrong or bad this approach is. It may occur to them when they wind up paying for their healthcare, disability etc. out of their own taxes. The protected status also protected us taxpayers from being burdened with the care of people who would work and earn their own way if they were allowed to obtain and keep jobs.
Somehow I'm not surprised, even cleaning crews can't clean up the filth at Citi Bank.
Vote with your pocketbook! Citi is notorious for charging outrageous interest rates, so cut up your card and take your business elsewhere. I did!
I don't think Obama will be able to stand between him and the pitchforks for this pandit idiot.
Forget BoA. This guy needs to go.
Pandit has to get "Wagoner'd" by Obama....E
So much for taking care of the least of them
I'm surprised they didn't get rid of them all and hire out...they
Pandit's gotta go. He needs to be fired as he just does not seem to get it.
The best CEO's in the country are the one's who have built their businesses themselves and actually CARE about those companies, the wellbeing of their employees, and the effect on the community, i.e. Les Wexner of Limited Brands; Bill Gates; Steve Jobs, etc. These Wall Street guys just do not care about anything except themselves. They need to go.
My Brother works for these bums and it ticks me off.
Very sad, indeed. How do they sleep?
On 2000 count sheets in multi-million dollar town homes.
LOL
American capitalism at work by keeping another form of slavery. Through tax code and various forms lobbying efforts, bribing snators and congressmen creating a legalized environment to producing a super rich and / or filthy rich 1 or 2 %, the rest are slaving daily under the so called law that for the purpose of creating the top 1 or 2 % by sucking the blood out of the rest.
Great....l
You people are sick and completely out of touch with what's going on out here,
Dumb......
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