Letter to the Editor: Queens Center Mall Should Pay Living Wage by David M. Quintana - Leader-Observer

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Dear Editor:

On Saturday May 21^st, I attended a Town Hall meeting at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Corona with hundreds of others to demand that the owner of the highly profitable Queens Center Mall, the Macerich Company, give back to the community by transforming the publicly subsidized mall from a poverty wage center into a responsible development for workers of Queens.

Among those participating in the event were elected officials: NY State Senator Jose Peralta, NY Assembly Member Francisco Moya, NY Assembly Member Jeffrion Aubrey, and New York City Council Members Julissa Ferreras and Daniel Dromm.

The meeting was hosted by Make the Road New York (MRNY), Queens Congregations United for Action (QCUA), the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) and the Retail Action Project (RAP)

In exchange for the more than $100 million in tax breaks Macerich receives, a growing community, labor, clergy coalition is pushing to hold the Queens Center Mall owner accountable to the public by requiring retailers to pay a living wage with benefits, respect workers' rights to organize a union without threats or intimidation, and provide space for community services

The owners of the mall receive tens of millions of dollars in subsidies from our tax dollars and what does the community receive in return? Absolutely nothing.

Retail is one of the areas where the largest number of jobs are being created, and it is past time for retail workers to receive a living wage and be able to unionize without being threatened by their employers. It shouldn’t even be a question for the Queens Center Mall, one of the most profitable malls in the country (profits of $876 per sq foot) to become a living wage center and not a poverty wage one,

Many people who work at the mall barely make the minimum wage. As everyone knows, it’s not possible to live on such a low salary here in Queens, much less support a family.

I feel it's important that when we talk about economic development in our community, we should be talking about jobs that provide economic stability, jobs that can support a family and not part-time jobs with poverty wages and no benefits. Macerich should be made to require union neutrality from its retailers, so employees can decide whether or not to organize a union without fear of threats or retaliation.

A living wage bill is being debated in the NYC Council which would require businesses that receive tax breaks or City subsidies to pay their workers a living wage of $11.50 an hour without benefits or $10 an hour with benefits.

I would urge anyone reading this letter to contact their City Council member and tell them that they should vote to pass a living wage law in New York City. I believe it is a moral imperative that if someone works full-time they should be able to support their family and feed their children. Thank you.

Sincerely,

David M. Quintana

Ozone Park, NY

NY City Council Hearing on the Living Wage Bill - May 12th, 2011

Click here to view these pictures larger

Over 400 people turned out to the high-energy rally. Kimberly Ortiz, a member of the Retail Action Project, testified about working at a concession stand at the Statue of Liberty for $9.00 an hour. "Does that sound like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to you?" she asked. Council Member Darlene Mealy, who hosted the hearing as Chair of the Contracts Committee said "Our rents keep going up, food keep[s] going up, gas keep[s] going up, but our salaries don't go up." The rally culminated in a powerful moment of prayer during which the clergy marched across to 250 Broadway and the crowd turned to face the building. We raised up our hands and shouted for the walls of oppression to come tumbling down like the walls of Jericho, while the Shofar sounded seven times.

An extraordinary number both supportive and undecided council members participated in the hearing, a testament to the importance of this issue. For two and a half hours they went toe to toe with Bloomberg's representative Tukombo Shobowale. Citing the bogus million dollar study, he painted a doomsday scenario of tremendous job loss and stalled development in the outer boroughs. Council members did not buy it. Brad Lander called the study a “$1 million whitewash.” Charles Barron said "Wall Street profits, while we suffer. The study is a lie. You can alter a study to say anything." And Robert Jackson asked the Economic Development Corporation to try living on a salary of $20,000 a year.

Our team provided powerful testimony. Linda Archer, a McDonald's worker who was only given a 20 cent raise and a "rising star" t-shirt for her stellar job performance at the fast-food chain told the council they would be "rising stars" if they passed the bill. We also heard from Caitlin Kelly, author of the book "Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail," Rev. Stephen Phelps of the Riverside Church, Dr. Ray Rivera of the Latino Pastoral Action Center and our excellent team of policy experts, including an expert from LA, testified that this law will help lift people out of poverty without all the negative consequences Bloomberg claims. Scroll down for links to media coverage.

Upcoming Event in Queens:

Town Hall about the Queens Center Mall: 

Mall Workers Speak Out for a Living Wage!

This Saturday May 21st, 3-5pm

St. Paul The Apostle Church

98-16 55th Ave., Corona

M/R train to Woodhaven Blvd

Media Coverage:

NY Daily News: Poll Finds NY Voters Support Living Wage

Bronx BP on Huffington Post: Why New York City Needs a "Living Wage" Law

NY1: Controversy Heats Up Over Living Wage Bill

"Inside City Hall" on NY1: Living Wage Debate

NY Times: Bloomberg Administration is Criticized on Wages

Politicker: Living Wage Fight Comes to City Hall

Crains: 'Living Wage' Backers Storm City Hall

Gotham Gazette: Living Wage Gets its Hearing

Presentation on Resident Voting Rights at the Jewish Center on May 12th

Thursday, May 12th - New Vision Club Meeting on the Resident Voting Rights Campaign 

Open to All, please mobilize your community at the Jewish Center in Jackson Heights 37-06 77th Street at 8 PM

The NYC Voting Rights Restoration Act of 2010 also known as Intro 410) was introduced into the NYC Council on November 18, 2010. The main sponsor is Daniel Dromm (D-25), who is the Chair of the NYC Council Immigration Committee. At least twenty other co-sponsors have already signed on, including Gale Brewer who heads the NYC Council Government Operations Committee, which has authority over election related legislation.

Text of the legislation can be found here

Chair of the City Council Immigration Committee, Daniel Dromm (D-25) says: 

“It is time for our evolving democracy to embrace voting rights in local elections for all residents. We are all stakeholders in our community and should have a say in important local issues. In the words of the Revolutionary patriots who put their lives on the line for the freedoms we enjoy today, ‘No taxation without representation.’ ”

The Coalition to Expand Voting Rights continues to work with legislators and community partners to win passage of this legislation in 2011. For more information go to www.ivotenyc.org

Immigrants: A Shot in the Arm for Our Ailing Democracy by David Andersson - Room Eight

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I think this is a wonderful idea and urge Speaker Quinn to bring it up for a vote in the City Council ASAP... 

We are about to witness a new and a rather unconventional contribution of the immigrant community in New York. This time, it will not be with work and cheap labor, or with cultural art and entertainment, or even with food. It will be by resuscitating our old and paralyzed democracy.

The state of affairs of our democracy is in general pathetic, and even worse at the local level. Only about 15% of the registered voters participate in local elections. The elections are already decided days before the voting booths open; the parties and lobbies place their candidates, make deals and control the outcome on Election Day. People are not stupid - they don't want to waste their precious time doing something useless! Everyone knows that voting in local New York elections is meaningless.

For the well being of the majority of the New York's residents, the situation has to change. We need to increase the representation and participation of everyone; we need to destabilize the political status quo and to form a dynamic multicultural voting community. The rights to affordable housing, to a decent minimum wage, to quality public education, and to adequate social services are possible, but only if our democracy changes, and represents everyone.

We are not just in an economic crisis. Everywhere we look, we can see that violence is gaining ground, the tensions between groups and communities is increasing, and the situation is getting crazier by the day.

This is a difficult but opportune moment to come forward with real and sincere proposals - proposals that will unite and reconcile - proposals that will have as their central tenet nonviolence, both as a personal attitude and as a social form of action. We need to come up with proposals that are coherent, and open to the future.

This past November, a bill was introduced to the New York City Council that is designed to do just that. The bill, Intro 410, proposes the right to immigrants, who are lawfully present in New York City, to vote in municipal elections. This legislation would grant voting right to over 1.3 million New Yorkers (for more details, see www.ivotenyc.org).

The legislation, proposed by the Chair of the City Council Immigration Committee, Daniel Dromm (D-25), has already received endorsement from 21 Council Members. According to Mr. Dromm, “…It is time for our evolving democracy to embrace voting rights in local elections for all residents. We are all stakeholders in our community and should have a say in important local issues. In the words of the Revolutionary patriots who put their lives on the line for the freedoms we enjoy today, 'No taxation without representation.' ”

Of course, this is not the magic bullet that will resolve all our problems. However, it is a step in the right direction. This legislation is something that could change the political map of the City, and give representation to a larger percentage of the New York's population.

If we have to remember just one thing from our history, it is that we have no democracy without participation. Our rights depend on our democracy. And our democracy depends on our participation. Without you, I lose my power and my ability to choose the conditions under which I live. Are we willing to give that power away?

David Andersson
Director of NYC Chapter of the Humanist Party and the coordinator of the New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights (iVote NYC).

Dromm Denounces Peter King Over Muslim Hearings by Connor Adams Sheets - Queens Campaigner

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City Councilman Daniel Dromm speaks during a protest of U.S. Rep. Peter King's planned hearing into the radicalization of the American Muslim community. Photo courtesy Daniel Dromm

On Sunday, City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) was a Muslim.

At least that was the message behind an event called “I Am a Muslim, Too” that he hosted in Jackson Heights that rainy morning: that he stands with Muslims in opposing the anti-Muslim invective being tossed around by politicians like U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-Massapequa Park).

The issue of what Dromm calls “Muslim-baiting,” where elected officials use anti-Muslim political sentiment for political gain, is coming to a head Thursday, Dromm said, when King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, plans to host the first in a series of hearings on the “radicalization” of American Muslims.

Entitled “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response,” the hearings are aimed at investigating the influence radicalization is having on the American Muslim community. A spokesman for King did not respond to a request for comment.

Representatives of several groups that advocate for and protect the rights of South Asian and Muslim immigrants, including Jackson Heights-based Desis Rising Up & Moving,? South Asian Youth Action in Elmhurst and Chhaya, CDC in Jackson Heights joined with Dromm Sunday in front of his Council office at 37-32 75th St. to denounce King’s planned inquiries. The event took place in Queens, which is home to a sizable Muslim community, in advance of a larger campaign by the same name that afternoon in Times Square.

Dromm said he sees the hearings as an religiously intolerant witch hunt that should concern all Americans.

“He’s singling out one group. If he had a hearing on radicalization of all populations, it would be a different story, but he’s feeding into a wrong stereotype of the Muslim community. He’s just totally wrong to do this and he should know better,” Dromm said Tuesday. “This is an un-American activity for Peter King to be involved in. It reminds me of the McCarthy hearings and it violates the basic principle that this country was founded on, which is freedom of religion.”

“Islamophobia and racism does not make us safer,” Monami Maulik, executive director of DRUM, said. “Peter King’s hearings targeting Muslims are his latest attempt to divide us and stoke fears for political ends. Just as masses of people stood up for human rights after his passage of the anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner bill in 2005, so too do conscious people stand now to end these witch hunts.”