Big Weekend for SFVYD

Thanks to everyone who joined SFVYD this weekend for our Circuit City Protest on Saturday morning, and/or our softball game vs. LACYD on Sunday. Both events were a big success and it was great to see everyone.

It's a bit of an understatement to say that the Northridge Circuit City was *not* happy to see us. As soon as we showed up in their parking lot and started passing out flyers, the manager demanded to know what we were doing and called security. After a prolonged discussion with some mall cops about our first amendment rights we agreed to take our protest to the mall's sidewalk entrance. Amusingly, the security guards seemed quite sympathetic to our protest - when I asked one how he would feel if he lost his job because he was paid to much, he replied, "pissed off."

Our sidewalk rally got plenty of attention as well. Cars honked horns and drivers yelled their support as they drove by. Many drivers pulled over to request flyers and more information, and promised to tell their friends to stay away from Circuit City. In fact, we had so much fun that we've decided to target Northridge again... come out on July 7 for a second helping of Circuit City consumer education.

Although protesting was a blast, Sunday's BBQ and softball game were definitely the weekend's highlight. SFVYD took on our sister club LACYD in a second annual softball faceoff. Although SFVYD put on a valiant effort, we were once again narrowly defeated, this time by a mere 13-8. (Sheesh.) Bottom line: next year's club activities will be *entirely dedicated to softball practice!* Well, perhaps not entirely but if you know any Valley YD's who can make a double play, tell them to sign up!

A huge thank-you is in order to Becca Doten and Eli Lipmen, who did a great job organizing the softball game and BBQ. I'm also pleased to thank the many elected officials and candidates who attended the event, including Assemblymembers Feuer, Fuentes, and Levine, former Assemblymember Paul Koretz, San Fernando Councilmember Steve Veres and 40th AD Candidate Stuart Waldman. We appreciate your support for Young Democrats and look forward to seeing you at future events!

Next Circuit City Protest June 23

Our next Circuit City Protest will happen Saturday, June 23, 10am at the Northridge Location - 19330 Plummer Street. Please attend and bring a friend!

View more details and RSVP by clicking here:



In other news:

• Some of the remaining Circuit City employees are reaching out to the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. This is a promising sign that will hopefully lead to some action. Retail stores are notoriously difficult to unionize, although card check legislation would make it easier to do so.
• Apparently Circuit City's firings do not extend to their Canadian stores.
• I'm happy to report that Stonewall Democratic Club has officially joined our boycott!

I'll see all of you in a couple weeks - in the meantime keep spreading the word and stay tuned.

More Firings at Circuit City

Many of you sent me articles today about Circuit City's latest wave of firings, this time involving mostly jobs in middle management.

Circuit City said 654 of the [eliminated] positions will come from management as it adopts a policy of assigning managers based on sales volume, spokesman Bill Cimino said. Until now, each store had five managers regardless of revenue, he said. Now, stores will have from three to five managers each, based on revenue. The cuts will come from a combination of attrition, transfers and dismissals, he said.

Unlike the previous firings, it does not appear Circuit City will be replacing these employees with lower-paid hires - they're just victims of old-fashioned "downsizing." It also is unclear whether these firings were based strictly on workers' salary level, like the last ones.

Still, it suggests that the company's first round of firings was not enough to raise profits - surprise, surprise! Maybe if they fire everyone but CEO Philip Schoonover he can sell all the TV's himself.