Labor & Employment

Framingham, Mass. -- TJX Cos. said Friday it will close its A.J. Wright discount stores by mid-February, cutting 4,400 jobs. The move comes as the company’s T.J. Maxx and Marshalls chains have become better at attracting the lower-income customers that A.J. Wright targeted.

Ninety-one A.J. Wright stores will be converted into T.J. Maxx, Marshalls or HomeGoods stores, and 71 stores and two DC’s will close entirely. About 3,400 employees will keep their jobs and another 4,400 – half part-time and half full-time – will be cut.

Santa Ana, Calif. -- Grubb & Ellis Co. announced that Susan E. Calvert and Joe I. Munoz have joined the company’s Lease Administration group.

Calvert, who joins as manager, Lease Administration, spent two years as a real estate administrator with SRS Real Estate Partners, where she was responsible for commercial portfolios spanning approximately 350 locations. Munoz, who will also serve on the lease administration team, spent seven years with SRS Real Estate Partners, ultimately rising to the position of lead real estate administrator. 

Dallas -- SRS Real Estate Partners announced that it has hired two new brokers in its Houston office.

Jennifer Paulson and Carter Malone recently joined the company as associates. The new hires come on the heels of a strategic move to grow the company’s local presence in Houston.
 

Atlanta -- EarthLink announced that it has completed its acquisition of ITC DeltaCom, a leading provider of integrated communications services to customers in the southeastern United States, in a transaction valued at approximately $524 million.

With the close of the transaction EarthLink will begin integrating its New Edge Networks and EarthLink Business Services operations with Deltacom and will market the combined services under the ‘EarthLink Business' brand name.

Beaumont, Texas -- Regional appliance and electronics chain Conn's said Thursday that chairman William C. Nylin Jr. is stepping down and will be succeeded as non-executive chairman by director Theodore Wright.

Nylin has served as chairman since June 2009 and was executive vice chairman before that. He has been on the board since 1993 and has also served as the company's COO and president. He will remain on the board.

New York City -- Ikea US sent a holiday ‘thank you’ to each of its 12,400 associates with a free bike, the retailer said Tuesday.

The gifts were part of Ikea’s “strong commitment to good health and being environmentally conscious,” while rewarding employees for a good year, the company said.

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores will stop paying an additional $1 an hour for working Sundays, taking a bite out of its single biggest expense, Bloomberg reported. The change will take effect at Walmart stores, Sam’s Club outlets and warehouses.

The move, which takes effect next year, applies only to associates hired after Jan. 1, the report said. It wouldn’t affect the retailer’s current U.S. staff, which numbers approximately 1.4 million.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation has announced its support of a tentative bipartisan agreement that would temporarily extend Bush-era tax cuts for all taxpayers regardless of income in return for extending unemployment benefits.

Landover, Md. -- Two-and-a-half years after joining the company, Robin Michel is leaving as president of the Giant-Landover division of Ahold USA to pursue other opportunities, the company confirmed Monday.

Michel will depart at the end of the month, according to Ahold USA spokesperson Sara Neumann. She will be replaced on a temporary basis as operations chief by Don Sussman, executive VP supply chain at Ahold, while the company conducts a search for a successor.