SHOPKO EMPLOYEES JOIN SEN. TAMMY BALDWIN TO
CALL ON SUN CAPITAL FOR SEVERANCE FUND

WEEKS AFTER SENDING LETTER TO SHOPKO OWNER,
WISCONSIN SENATOR TO HOLD ROUNDTABLE WITH LAID-OFF EMPLOYEES

GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN — Tomorrow, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) will sit down with former Shopko employees coming together with the organization United for Respect to call on Sun Capital Partners establish a financial assistance fund to pay the severance of all 14,000 employees impacted by the retailer’s liquidation. Sun Capital, a private equity firm, bought Shopko in 2005. In a letter sent last month, Senator Baldwin told Sun Capital’s CEOs:

Your firm is responsible for the series of decisions that led to Shopko’s bankruptcy, its stores closing, and its workers losing their jobs. To make matters worse, because of your mismanagement, Shopko is now breaking a promise it recently made its workers. I ask that Sun Capital keep its promise and establish a fund to pay the severance of Shopko employees harmed by the liquidation.

WHO: Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), former Shopko employees taking action with United for Respect

WHAT: Sen. Baldwin Roundtable with Shopko workers in WI.

WHEN: Saturday, July 13 at 10:30am CT

WHERE: Sen. Baldwin District Office, Suite 119, 1039 West Mason, Green Bay, WI 54303

Baldwin’s letter came on the heels of a letter sent by nearly 700 Shopko employees calling on Shopko owner Sun Capital Partners take responsibility for destroying the 58-year Midwestern retailer. At tomorrow’s roundtable, four employees — with more than 70 years of service at Shopko between them — are among the 3000 Wisconsin Shopko employees who have lost their jobs. 

In 2005, Sun Capital bought Shopko in a $1.1 billion leveraged buyout. It then collected hundreds of millions in dividends and fees over the years, even as the retailer faced mounting financial woes and insolvency. Shopko employees’ drive for severance pay builds on the efforts of the movement of Toys ‘R’ Us workers who fought for and won a historic $20 million hardship fund from KKR and Bain Capital, the former owners of the company.