RWDSU President Appelbaum's Remarks on Discounted Jobs (1/18/12)

At yesterday's Retail Action Press Conference for the launch of the new report on the low pay and poor benefits suffered by non-union retail workers, RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum made the following remarks:

Good morning. I’m Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). I want to thank Carrie Gleason and everyone at the Retail Action Project and the Murphy Institute at CUNY who made today’s important event possible. The new report, Discounted Jobs: How Retailers Sell Workers Short, we’re here to discuss today includes a number of disturbing findings about the nonunionized retail workforce in New York City. On average, these retail workers, who are employed in one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors of our economy, earn less than $10/hr, receive few benefits, and have little control over their schedules.

It’s important to understand what has caused this deterioration of job quality and basic standards in the retail industry. Some analysts at the National Retail Federation conference will tell you it’s about the cutthroat nature of the global marketplace and the need for companies to increase their competitiveness by doing more and more with less. I don’t buy that, nor do retail workers, and nor should you as members of the news media.

It’s corporate greed plain and simple. Many retail companies today have huge profit margins and pay their top executives skyscraper high salaries, not to mention bonuses. They can clearly afford to pay workers more, give them decent benefits, and ensure stable, full-time hours for all employees who want them and deserve them. But they don’t—because these companies feel they can get away with treating workers unfairly.

It’s only when companies are pressured to treat their workers better that they do. That’s the lesson and living truth of the labor movement, and it’s what my union, the RWDSU, has come to know firsthand after years of organizing retail workers. We represent workers at Macy’s, Bloomingdales, H&M and other retailers, and at the stores we’ve unionized, our members have won contracts that are helping to improve the industry.

Unionized retail workers are paid more, receive better benefits, and retain far more control over their schedules than nonunionized retail workers. So, as more people find themselves in retail jobs, we need to step up our efforts as a city, and in our communities and workplaces, to explain the benefits of unionization, and help retail workers achieve power through collective bargaining and contracts that advance their interests and rights.

The more that retail workers stand together and demand that companies do better, the more the industry will be forced to change—and reverse the trends that are revealed in the report being released today. Unions invented the concept of living wage and built the middle class by raising standards across industries and occupations. Retail workers are increasingly the faces of the American workforce, so whatever happens in the retail industry will have implications for our entire economy and our future living standards.

Corporate greed has come under assault by the Occupy movement, and income inequality is back in the news again. We have a great opportunity to re-educate the public and the retail workforce about the importance of unionization. Now is the moment to seize it.