If you were not a member of management, but a full time employee, you found yourself getting the shaft from Retail 21 recently. Your benefits and insurance will end, and you will move to part time status.
Forever 21, the fashion outlet, has made an effort to try and portray the good they do in the world, why here.. look at their page devoted to Corporate Responsibility:
http://www.forever21.com/...
Forever 21, as a brand, has had good and bad times.. though mostly good.
http://www.forbes.com/...
Do Won (Don) Chang and his wife, Jin, left Korea in 1981 in search of the American dream. Over time they built the 376th-biggest private company in the U.S. and are now worth at least $1 billion. Because of their long-standing ties to the U.S. as well as their green cards, which give them permanent residency status, the couple, Korean citizens, are not included among our list of South Korea’s 40 wealthiest, despite their large fortune.
Chang’s entrepreneurial bent became apparent in Korea. Three years before moving to California, he says, he started the first coffee and natural juice delivery service in the Myungdong neighborhood in Seoul. When Chang, now 54, emigrated, he initially worked three jobs at once, working in a coffee shop, doing janitorial work and pumping gas. It was his job at the gas station that led him into the fashion industry. “I noticed that the merchants had the best cars,” he says. In 1984, the couple opened a clothing store in Los Angeles.
Today that business is one of the U.S.’ fastest-growing retailers, Forever 21, known for its trendy, affordable fashions that often replicate styles of more expensive brands. He is chief executive; she is chief merchandising officer. Most items cost between $5 and $25. It competes against other billionaire controlled companies such as Stefan Persson’s Hennes & Mauritz and Amancio Ortega’s Inditex, which operates Zara stores.
That was 2009, when ownership was worth a measly $1B.. the last few years have been rough, as Forbes notes:
http://www.forbes.com/...
Jin Sook & Do Won Chang
Net Worth
$4.5 B
I mean, if you can only quadruple your networth in a few years, something is disastrous with the economy.
Forever 21 has long been an example of good corporate stewardship:
Forever 21 bills itself as a “Christian retailer.” In fact, this Christian company even puts a little Christian code message on all of it’s shopping bags (John 3:16), which a company spokesperson is on record as saying is a “demonstration of the owner’s christian faith.” They have grown from humble beginnings in Los Angeles to an international shopping destination, with stores not only in the U.S. but also Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.
They are also no stranger to controversy. Going back just to 2001, Forever 21 was forced to settle out of court, pay back wages, etc., after being sued for systemically ripping-off employees. The company was also compelled to put in measures to prevent future products being made in sweatshops, as was happening at Forever 21’s facilities.
Read more:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/...
I seem to remember a Christian Value of "whatever you do for the least of my people.." which has apparently been re-written as "whatever you can do TO the least of my people.."
More Info...
12:12 PM PT: Update: Forever 21 Confrms via their Facebook. Their argument, that this impacts "1% of employees" is only effective when you consider they are arguing this shift to part time would make them all ineligible anyway, contend employees responding to the facebook feed.
Sat Aug 17, 2013 at 5:54 PM PT: A Thank You Update - I've done a lot of diaries on Kos over the years. Several have had more "recs" then this, a few I felt were more immediate important, but very few that I felt had an immediate reaction by a community beyond Kos as to a standard we want to promote. This diary crossed over 800+ Facebook shares this afternoon, and it keeps going. I'm surprised by that, but glad.... part of making sure corporations do their best for the people is to make positive handling of their employees Good PR, and bad handling bad PR. If more companies are held to this type of standard through their pocket books, more companies will second guess the kind of strategy that places like Forever 21 have used to take advantage of their employees.
Thank you.
Sun Aug 18, 2013 at 3:21 PM PT: WOW. 1K+ Shares. Thanks to all who shared this story to motivate more people to do the right thing with their shopping dollar!
