Campaign Brings Macy's and Bloomingdale's Workers from Across the Country Together to Rally for Better Contracts

In an act of solidarity to raise standards in the retail industry, Macy's and Bloomingdale's workers in Seattle, Pleasanton, C.A., Pittsburgh, and New York City are working together to fight for better contracts. Together, UFCW members from locals across the country are negotiating with management at Macy's, Macy's Furniture Gallery, and Bloomingdale's stores.

"All we want is a fair contract," says Damaris Morales, 46, who has been a saleswoman at the Bloomingdale's 59th Street flagship store in New York City for 15 years.

Focused on the theme: "We are the Magic Behind Macy's," workers across the country hand-billed their customers with a Macy's fact sheet; wore "We are the Magic" yellow wristbands; and signed petitions that pledged to take local action to support workers in negotiations.

On April 18, workers from across the country came together and rallied for a new contract. In a community effort, they were joined by elected officials, other union members, customers, and other workers, including Macy's workers and workers from Bloomingdale's flagship store.

Check out photos from the rally and workers participating in the "We are the Magic Behind Macy's" campaign:

Retail Employees Work Towards a Better Economy and a Better Life

Today's post is the first in what will be an ongoing series on the retail industry, its impact on our economy, and the opportunities and challenges its workers face.

A recent article in Good Magazine focused on telling the stories of workers in the service industry that anyone who works in the sector is all too familiar with. The piece is filled with examples of workers who are overworked, underpaid and do not have any job security or benefits. The fear of not being able to pay the bills, getting sick or getting fired at any moment is plaguing workers in an industry that will become the backbone of the American economy.

Retail jobs are growing, and they’re poised to become as important to the 21st Century American economy as manufacturing jobs once were. Yet, despite the growing demand of the service industry, retail jobs don’t always come with a path to the middle class, and instead leave workers struggling to meet their basic needs. If we want to have a middle class in America, it is crucial that millions of American retail workers have good jobs with solid work schedules, and a paycheck and benefits that pay the bills.

Make no mistake, retailers actively work to make these jobs “bad” jobs. Driven by the bottom line of profit, and emboldened by a struggling economy and a plethora of applicants, they’ve purposely created a broken system and negative working environment for workers. With the exception of a few responsible retailers whose workers have a union voice, most retail employers don’t pay a living wage. They depend on high turnover. They’re stingy with schedules in order to avoid paying overtime and providing benefits.

Retailers trap their workers in a cycle of inconsistent schedules and wages that leave them struggling to make ends meet and support their families. Many workers have to balance two or three different jobs at a time in order to make a 40 hour work week possible. The middle class cannot survive or prosper if its foundation of workers is scrambling between several jobs just to pay the bills or put food on the table.

Retailers and other service industry employers do this to send a clear message to workers: you don’t deserve good jobs. In surprising, stark contrast to the way we felt about manufacturing jobs, Americans are starting to believe retail jobs – the very foundation of our new economy – shouldn’t be decent, dependable, middle class jobs. Many workers are just grateful to have a job at all, and they expect low wages and benefits because it is part of the system that has been ingrained in them.

These workers will play a significant role in the American economy. It’s shocking to think about the consequences of a generation of workers whose primary job opportunities offer them no path to the middle class.

Many people see their retail jobs as temporary or as a stepping stone to other careers, so they don’t want to invest a lot in a position they believe will not serve them in the long run. But the fact is that many will end up staying in their service industry jobs because those will be the only opportunities available to them. That’s why retail workers need to unite and take action now to fight against the industry’s push to make retail jobs “bad jobs.”

Workers in retail can be empowered by coming together on the job, recognizing that they are a critical part of the national workforce, and demanding to share the success with profitable national and international retailers. Union workers at retailers like Macys, H&M, Modells, and Bloomingdales already know that having a union voice on the job means they’ll be compensated and treated in a way that reflects their hard work. They’re able to bargain the middle class wages and health care benefits they earn and deserve.

With a union on the job, empowered retail workers can bolster the growing service industry and re-create the modern middle class that workers had in the past, and what we certainly need now.

Retail Workers Need Safe Workplaces, Too

Retail workers can be safer with a union voice on the job.

With Workers Memorial Day just behind us, I've been thinking lately about work safety. The most high profile on-the-job tragedies usually involve those working at jobs we all know are difficult and dangerous: miners, firefighters, police officers, truckers, commercial fishing workers, plant employees. But we often forget that retail jobs, too, can be difficult and dangerous—and that considering retail workers’ safety on the job is no laughing matter. 

It’s safer now than it used to be, since murder is down across the nation—but working the overnight shift in retail is still a dangerous job. As a prime target for robbery, the clerk’s job puts him or her in the way of violence more often than many other workers. And retail workers in malls, shopping centers, fitness centers, and other places are at greater risk of being injured or killed by random violence. They can be the victims of spree attackers – or, as the recent murder at a yoga store in Bethesda, Maryland, shows, of their own co-workers. In 2007, 167 people were killed working retail, according to a study by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. And most retail workplace deaths occur as a result of homicide.

Of course, random violence is still extremely rare—but retail workers do encounter many on-the-job threats to their physical safety and well-being. Retail workers are often asked to stand in place for long periods of time, sometimes hours or more. This puts lots of stress on the legs, feet, back, and circulatory system, and over time, permanent injuries and disabling conditions can occur. Retail workers are often asked to set up displays, stock merchandise, and perform other tasks that often see them lifting heavy equipment, boxes, and display units without aid of a harness and without being shown the proper way to handle heavy lifting. They may be asked to climb up ladders in stockrooms or even operate machinery which they have not been trained on properly. 

And injured workers don’t always receive the proper treatment or advice from management or HR. I worked at several retails jobs over the years, and at some of these places if you were hurt on the job, no one told you about workers’ compensation. It was always your fault that you got hurt, no matter than you’d been asked by your manager to lift a heavy display case over your head or carry a table by yourself. If the injury was very bad, you might be allowed to go home or to the hospital or doctor’s office—but frequently workers with head injuries or bleeding wounds would be told they needed to finish their shift before they could go home. The people I worked with (including me) had no idea what kind of safe environment we were entitled to at work, so we kept our mouths shut, put a bunch of band-aids on that bleeding gash, and went back to our counters and customers with a (somewhat strained) smile on our faces. At most of these places, the stores’ safety procedures were good, but managers often overlooked or ignored them, or created shortcuts that shouldn’t have been acceptable.

I’m sure that my store wasn’t the only place where such incidents occurred. I’ve heard horror stories from many non-union retail workers about injuries they received on the job and how they could have been prevented beforehand, or better managed afterwards. We need better awareness, too, of how repetitive stress injuries, back neck and foot injuries, and other injuries can develop over time with unsafe working conditions. These working conditions are often seen as silly or ignored (you can stand for six hours! You don’t need a stool.) because they aren’t life-threatening, but they take their toll on the body over time and can cause all kinds of problems later. 

So as we remember workers who’ve lost their lives on the job, and consider how to make workplaces safer, let’s not forget to include retail workers in the conversation. From protecting workers from violence to the more mundane safety concerns that still have very serious impacts, retail workers deserve a safer, more comfortable work environment, too.