Demand Progress

Yet another big corporation, Bed Bath & Beyond, is putting executive profits ahead of worker pay. Since 2004, the retail giant spent a whopping $11.8 billion on stock buybacks, which directly benefit executives and wealthy shareholders. Bed Bath & Beyond chose stock buybacks over investing in its business and workers.¹

Now, Bed Bath & Beyond is in bankruptcy and CEO Sue Gove is trying to avoid giving workers severance pay.² Rich executives obsessed with corporate profits can’t stiff workers like this.

Sign the petition: Urge Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Sue Gove to do the right thing and give thousands of laid off workers severance pay.

Just TWO months before Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy, the retail giant reported spending $230 million on stock buybacks. Now, it’s saying no severance pay to workers and even refusing to match employee 401(k) contributions that have already been made. This is corporate greed plain and simple.

"Your company has a responsibility to your workers, and it’s clear that after years of putting profits for shareholders ahead of those responsibilities, and endangering the health of its business, Bed Bath & Beyond is still failing to treat retail employees with dignity in the bankruptcy process," Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker wrote in a letter to Gove.³

We don’t have to give in to rich executives. After a wave of public pressure, CEO Sue Gove agreed to severance pay for laid off New Jersey workers — in part because of layoff protections passed in New Jersey’s state legislature shortly after Bed Bath & Beyond laid off over 1,000 workers in the state.⁴ And after a massive public pressure campaign after Toys “R” Us went into bankruptcy and refused severance pay, workers won a $2 million settlement for severance pay.⁵

We need to join Senators Warren and Booker to make this a public campaign that Bed Bath & Beyond executives can’t ignore.

Add your name: Demand Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Sue Gove provides severance pay to workers!

Sources: 

1. Senator Elizabeth Warren, "Since 2004, Bed Bath & Beyond...," July 6, 2023.
2. CNBC, “Sens. Warren, Booker grill failed retailer Bed Bath & Beyond over allegedly denying severance,” July 6, 2023.
3. Office of Senator Cory Booker, “Booker, Warren Call for Severance Pay and Benefits for Employees Following Bed Bath & Beyond Bankruptcy and Layoffs,” July 6, 2023.
4. Ibid.
5. Bloomberg News, “Warren, Booker Press Bed Bath & Beyond on Worker Severance Pay,” July 6, 2023.