Underemployment: Retail Workers Struggle For Hours In Weak Recovery (9/26/11)

RWDSU Local 1-S President Ken Bordieri and Carrie Gleason, Director of the RWDSU's Retail Action Project provided insight for a new Huffington Post story about the disappearing 40-hour work week. The new RWDSU contract for Macy's workers in New York is presented as a model for retail workers throughout the country, with it's protections for scheduling hours.

 In June, workers with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) ratified a contract with the clothing retailer that, in addition to assuring a $3 raise for over five years, stipulates that both full- and part-time workers would not lose their hours over the course of the contract. It also allows workers to choose a designated day off during the week and pick which nights they will work.

Ken Bordieri, a union official who was involved in the negotiations, says members had growing concerns about the way "full-time" work had been shrinking in retail. He was very satisfied with the contract, which pertains to 4,000 employees, mostly at the flagship store in New York City, and glad that his members will face less uncertainty than many other workers in the industry.

Bordieri compares the present situation to times during the Great Depression, when workers would show up outside factory gates looking for a day's work, and then the boss would pick a few through the fence and tell the rest to go home.

"I'll take you and you and you -- but the rest of you, I'm sorry," says Bordieri. "It's the same thing, only it's brought up to date with computers. It's a very sinister thing when you think about it. There's no commitment to anyone to help them do all the middle-class things that the retail industry was good at doing before."

Read the full article here