Jerry Davich: Kmart workers shocked, hurt, betrayed: ‘We put Portage on the map’
JERRY DAVICH February 5, 2012 6:20PM
Signs announcing the closing of the KMart to passersby along US 6 in Portage Friday afternoon. | Jeffrey D. Nicholls~Sun-Times Media
Updated: March 7, 2012 9:46AM
Shocked. Hurt. Betrayed. Angered. Blindsided.
This is how the longtime workers felt at the Super Kmart in Portage after learning that their beloved, high-performing store was being closed for good.
It hit them like a “punch in the gut” on Dec. 30, they told me. Soon after being told, boxes of Kleenex were brought into their meeting room.
“Now it feels like we’re walking through a cemetery when we go to work,” said one worker who’s been with the company for more than 30 years.
“It’s like visiting someone in hospice who you know is dying,” added another worker. “But that person is us, all of us, together.”
A dozen loyal but now disillusioned employees met with me last week to voice their frustration regarding the closing of a store whose death certificate will be marked April 8, according to company officials.
The workers were concerned about losing their jobs even sooner if their names were printed in this column, so I am shielding their identities to prevent that from happening. But make no mistake, their feelings were still raw with emotion a month after hearing the news, even to the point of tears.
“We’re a family here, and together we’ve been through births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and everything in between,” one woman said, her voice breaking. “When my son was hurt, I had to live near Mayo Clinic for 30 days, out of my own pocket. My co-workers filled a wishing well collection for me. For ME.”
“That’s what we do for each other,” said another woman who lost her husband.
The first Portage Kmart store was built in 1983, and then replaced by a new Super Kmart store on the same property on Feb. 11, 1994, they said. Some of the employees have been with the company for 30-plus years, with their starting pay at $1.50 an hour.
“We put Portage on the map,” one woman said proudly. “This was back when there was nothing there but cornfields. We were the No. 1 through No. 5 top-performing store in the company for a long time. We’re proud of what we’ve done.”
The employees also feel stung by remarks they read in a newspaper story from Portage Mayor Jim Snyder when news first broke about the store closing.
“We’re all pissed,” snapped one long-time employee while admitting most Kmart employees voted for Snyder back in November.
Snyder was quoted as saying it was “a great day for Portage” with the announcement that a Meijer store was finally coming to the city after years in the works. The Kmart employees believe he also should have said “it’s a sad day for the Portage Kmart workers,” or something similar, they said.
“Even if he said ‘I’m sorry for losing your jobs’ it would have meant something to us,” a worker said. “We just want people, and the mayor, to know that we have feelings and that we contributed greatly to this community through the years.”
Snyder told me he is indeed sensitive to their abrupt loss of jobs, and his administration will do everything possible to help them — and other unemployed residents — find new jobs in the city. He also posted similarly sensitive comments on a heated Facebook exchange about this issue more than a month ago, he noted.
“We are working every day to attract new companies, and new jobs, to our city,” he said.
Gallows humor
In the meantime, the Kmart workers are unsure what their future will hold, employment wise. Many of the full-time employees do not want to start working at another company for minimum wage, and without benefits. In all, 209 employees are affected by the store closure.
“We loved working for Kmart, and we have nothing against Meijer,” one woman said.
The new Meijer store is expected to open at that site in the spring of 2013, they said.
“Management doesn’t have a clue of what’s going on, or our future,” one worker said.
Management must have had some sort of clue because multiple renovations have been taking place at the store the past several months. In hindsight, the upgrades were to ensure the sale of the building.
“We thought the upgrades were for us, not for a Meijer store,” one worker said.
The workers are all “jack of all trades” regarding their job duties — cashier, forklift operator, stocking shelves, layaway. You name it, they’ve done it.
What are their plans now? Some will take their first summer off in decades. Others are wondering what life will be like during the Christmas holidays without dealing with irate retail customers. A few are wondering if they will even be offered a job by Meijer.
The store is one of 80 Kmarts nationwide to be permanently closed. A slow painful death to the workers who’ve shed blood, sweat and tears there.
“S.S. Kresge is rolling over in his grave,” one woman said, referring to the founder of the Kmart stores empire.
The Portage store’s current “liquidation sale” is no sale at all, they agreed.
“Our prices are not any cheaper than before, but customers think they are because of the closing signs,” a woman said.
“As our inventory dwindles, so will the work force,” one employee said somberly.
“So don’t buy anything,” another woman piped in.
However, if you’re in need of, say, an electrical grounding adapter, there are 516 in stock and selling for just $1.75, one worker said jokingly. The doomed employees also have a running bet, and a running joke, which item will be the last to go. And who will be the last one employed there.
Gallows humor, to be sure.
I will be discussing this issue today at noon on my “Out to Lunch” radio show on WVLP 98.3-FM,
www.wvlp.org.
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