It's one 10-store chain in New York City, involving 95 workers, but the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union's win at Footco is a glimpse into the future, where unions create new strategies to organize not just stores, but communities.
And that focus, which reached from the streets of the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick to the office of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, is one reason the win at Footco shoe stores is so notable, says RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum.
The other reason for its prominence, says Jim Papian, spokesman for RWDSU's parent union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, is that the Footco win is part of new organizing tactics the entire union is adopting.
The win came with the aid of churches, local organizations, Spitzer--who pursued the company for minimum wage and overtime law violations--and, especially a community group called Make The Road By Walking. The 1,500-member group organized marches through Bushwick and elsewhere. It planned, and got 1,000 signatures to promote a boycott unless Footco owners agreed to abide by card-check recognition of the union, should RWDSU get a majority. The boycott was set to go last August when the owners yielded. The union got the majority within weeks and ratified its first-ever contract in mid-February.
"The people involved in this effort were absolutely amazing. And they were so empowered by finding out what they could do for themselves," Appelbaum says.
The three-year Footco pact gives workers a starting wage of $7.25 an hour, rising to $8.15 hourly on July 1 of its third year. It also guarantees workers a 45-hour week, and that means time-and-a-half for the last five hours. Until now, Footco workers earned as little as $4.75 hourly for working up to 60 hours--and got straight time only.
It also gives the workers, for the first time ever, sick leave, paid vacations, and health insurance for those toiling more than 20 hours a week.
The details, while important, are not as important as how RWDSU won.
"We can't just pick individual targets" among stores "as we did in the past," Appelbaum explained. "You have to organize neighborhoods as well."
RWDSU did so, he added, by going out into Bushwick and the other areas around the Footco stores--they first tried organizing two, but found the chain owned 10, under different names--to reveal not just low wages and lack of overtime pay, but also how those conditions hit families and communities. And RWDSU prepared for the campaign by researching Footco, the communities and corporate structure, for months.
"In Bushwick, we issued a report, Street Of Shame, about the conditions on Knickerbocker Avenue," location of one Footco store, Appelbaum said. After describing the low pay, no overtime and lack of benefits, RWDSU and its community allies kept pushing one basic message: "These are not just workers, these are your neighbors."
"We had demonstrators marching through the streets banging pots and pans" on the weekend before Christmas, in a parade reminiscent of the Latin American ancestral homes of many Footco workers. "The signs were in English and Spanish: 'What workers want for Christmas is fair pay.'" RWDSU brought Spitzer's office into the fray on pay, presenting him with evidence of wage violations, pressuring Footco from above.
RWDSU is now expanding the campaign to other non-food retail sites in the Big Apple, and working with other community groups elsewhere in New York.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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It’s one 10-store chain in New York City, involving 95 workers, but the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union’s win at Footco is a glimpse into the future, where unions create new strategies to organize not just stores, but communities.
And that focus, which reached from the streets of the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick to the office of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, is one reason the win at Footco shoe stores is so notable, says RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum.
The other reason for its prominence, says Jim Papian, spokesman for RWDSU’s parent union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, is that the Footco win is part of new organizing tactics the entire union is adopting.
The win came with the aid of churches, local organizations, Spitzer–who pursued the company for minimum wage and overtime law violations–and, especially a community group called Make The Road By Walking. The 1,500-member group organized marches through Bushwick and elsewhere. It planned, and got 1,000 signatures to promote a boycott unless Footco owners agreed to abide by card-check recognition of the union, should RWDSU get a majority. The boycott was set to go last August when the owners yielded. The union got the majority within weeks and ratified its first-ever contract in mid-February.
“The people involved in this effort were absolutely amazing. And they were so empowered by finding out what they could do for themselves,” Appelbaum says.
The three-year Footco pact gives workers a starting wage of $7.25 an hour, rising to $8.15 hourly on July 1 of its third year. It also guarantees workers a 45-hour week, and that means time-and-a-half for the last five hours. Until now, Footco workers earned as little as $4.75 hourly for working up to 60 hours–and got straight time only.
It also gives the workers, for the first time ever, sick leave, paid vacations, and health insurance for those toiling more than 20 hours a week.
The details, while important, are not as important as how RWDSU won.
“We can’t just pick individual targets” among stores “as we did in the past,” Appelbaum explained. “You have to organize neighborhoods as well.”
RWDSU did so, he added, by going out into Bushwick and the other areas around the Footco stores–they first tried organizing two, but found the chain owned 10, under different names–to reveal not just low wages and lack of overtime pay, but also how those conditions hit families and communities. And RWDSU prepared for the campaign by researching Footco, the communities and corporate structure, for months.
“In Bushwick, we issued a report, Street Of Shame, about the conditions on Knickerbocker Avenue,” location of one Footco store, Appelbaum said. After describing the low pay, no overtime and lack of benefits, RWDSU and its community allies kept pushing one basic message: “These are not just workers, these are your neighbors.”
“We had demonstrators marching through the streets banging pots and pans” on the weekend before Christmas, in a parade reminiscent of the Latin American ancestral homes of many Footco workers. “The signs were in English and Spanish: ‘What workers want for Christmas is fair pay.'” RWDSU brought Spitzer’s office into the fray on pay, presenting him with evidence of wage violations, pressuring Footco from above.
RWDSU is now expanding the campaign to other non-food retail sites in the Big Apple, and working with other community groups elsewhere in New York.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.