Retail Workers Face Layoffs And Erratic Schedules As Holiday Season Ends

When Emmett Foster started working at the Amazon clothing plant in Norristown, Pennsylvania, last September as a contracted employee, he was under the impression that as long as he received his certifications for T-shirt printing and quality control, he would be kept on as a permanent employee after the holiday season. “We knew the day was coming when they would make their cuts. The majority of the staff was seasonal. Those of us who had our certifications assumed just the seasonal people would get cut,” Foster said. He commuted from Philadelphia to Norristown four days a week for the job and had resigned another full-time position to take it. But last week, Foster and dozens of other seasonal and contracted employees at the Amazon clothing plant were laid off along with thousands of other workers at retailers across the U.S. Retailers have just had their best holiday season in six years but for retail workers the post-holiday come down has been brutal. Read more at The Guardian.