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

Anti-Walmart Flash Mob Strikes Again - Walmart Free NYC & Jobs for Justice

A Few Weeks After Focusing on Related Co., the Flash Mob Disrupts Wal-mart CEO Mike Duke Appearance in Bryant Prk

Activists Promise to Continue Disrupting Wal-mart and It's Partners

On April 27, Walmart CEO Mike Duke visited New York City to have breakfast with the Wall Street Journal and a roomful of corporate elites. Everyday New Yorkers weren't invited. But we have a lot of strong opinions about his plans to take over our city and flood it with poverty wage jobs. So we decided to throw him a little surprise party, brass band in tow!

A hundred singing and dancing activists converged on Bryant Park on Wednesday to protest Walmart for its record of mistreating women, African Americans and Latinos and the LGBT community, and to confront Walmart CEO Mike Duke in person.


New York Jobs with Justice and members of the Walmart-Free NYC Coalition, including RWDSU, the Retail Action Project, New York Communities for Change, and Make the Road NY, held up yellow frowny-face masks and surrounded the windows of the Bryant Park Grill, chanting “Walmart cheats, Walmart hates, Walmart discriminates!” for nearly an hour as Mike Duke spoke inside.



Amid the chanting, a brass band loudly performed a dance number in front of the windows called "Mr. Walmart," modeled on Jean Knight’s “Mr. Big Stuff,” with a drag-clad Lady Liberty telling a performer dressed as Mr. Walmart on stilts, "Who do you think you are?/ Mr. Walmart/ You’re never gonna get my love."



“Walmart can spend as much money as it wants to buy its way into New York,” said Javier Valdes, Deputy Director of Make the Road NY, one of New York City’s largest community organizations. “But that doesn’t change the fact that Walmart doesn’t share New York’s values. They have settled a lawsuit for discriminating against black truck drivers, fired Latino workers who complained about being called racial slurs, and is facing the largest sex discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history.”



Walmart is reportedly looking to open many stores throughout the five boroughs. One possible location is the Gateway II development in East New York, Brooklyn, which is being developed by the Related Companies, who was the focus of the first Anti-Walmart flash mob. The site was subject to a lengthy community planning process, and Related’s recently reported move to introduce a Walmart into those plans without community consent have raised a flurry of opposition from concerned residents, community organizations and local elected officials.



At a recent Housing Preservation and Development hearing, concerns were raised that the City-sponsored appraisal of the land was incomplete.



According to event organizer Austin Guest of NY Jobs with Justice, “If Walmart opens stores in our city, there is no indication that they will stop their track record of killing local jobs, treating workers poorly, and eliminating competition from responsible employers. We will keep following Walmart and its allies to make sure that New Yorkers know what Walmart will bring with them into New York.”



For more information, visit www.walmartfreenyc.com

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Speaks Out Against Walmart’s Failed Record on LGBT Issues and Endorses Wal-mart Free NYC Campaign

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, one of oldest and largest LGBT organizations in the country, announced its endorsement of the Wal-mart Free NYC campaign in a forceful and detailed statement. The full statement appears below and is followed by reactions from Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which secured the endorsement, and Christine C. Quinn, Speaker of the New York City Council.

“We have serious concerns about the expansion of Wal-mart into New York City, a historic home of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. With the expansion of Wal-mart stores comes the expansion of antiquated employment policies that provide little to no protections for, and at times even hostility toward, their LGBT employees. On same-sex partnership benefits, gender identity nondiscrimination, diversity training, and other employment policies and workplace issues, Wal-mart is eons behind many companies,” said Rea Carey, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

“For example, two of Wal-mart’s top competitors, Costco and Walgreens, both of which operate stores in New York City, offer health care and other benefits to same-sex partners; include gender identity in their nondiscrimination policy; and strive to create an environment in which transgender people feel safe and secure, rather than vulnerable to harm. These are companies with records of leadership on LGBT issues, whereas Wal-mart, the largest private employer in the country, has shown little progress over the years.

“Wal-mart’s lack of sensitivity to transgender people is especially important to consider. New York City’s Human Rights Law clearly protects gender identity, yet Wal-mart opposes shareholder resolutions that would require the company’s nondiscrimination policy to cover gender identity, and refuses to uphold the rights of transgender people that many localities and states now recognize. What this means is that Wal-mart stores in New York City could very conceivably create a hostile work environment and invite unlawful behavior.

“There are plenty of other examples of Wal-mart standing in the way of justice and equality for LGBT people. To name just a few: Wal-mart CEO Mike Duke is on record opposing gay and lesbian adoption; Wal-mart stores around the country currently sell a book that presents homosexuality as a disease that needs to be cured; and in a widely reported news story a young Wal-mart employee in Las Vegas was outed and shamed on the job last year by his supervisor and later filed a complaint with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission.

“Wal-mart is spending millions to try to convince the public to overlook these dark moments and unacceptable practices so that the damage it would do to New York City will be grossly underestimated. We are glad the Wal-mart Free NYC campaign is cutting through the spin and speaking the truth. People of all backgrounds need to know that Wal-mart’s so-called bargains have always come at too high a price. Instead of establishing a model for other companies, Wal-mart continues to set a bad example. New York City, a historic home of LGBT activism and resistance, is much better off without Wal-mart,” Carey said.

"We applaud the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for recognizing that Wal-mart still opposes workplace rights and protections which LGBT people have long demanded and now receive at many other places of employment," said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), UFCW. "Wal-mart has a failed record on LGBT issues; the Task Force is right to highlight the costs and consequences of that failure as Wal-mart continues its increasingly desperate campaign to enter New York City via the noisiest intersections of profit and deceit."

“NYC is a place where we celebrate diversity and protect the rights of all people. Wal-mart, the world’s largest retailer, does not include transgender people in its non-discrimination policies. They also do not voluntarily offer domestic partner benefits to its LGBT employees, only doing so when required to by state law. This lack of inclusion in its diversity policies is the antithesis of what we in NYC want and expect from our corporate partners. These are yet two more reasons why Wal-mart is a poor fit to do business in NYC," said Christine C. Quinn, Speaker of the New York City Council.

About the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. We do this by training activists, equipping state and local organizations with the skills needed to organize broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, and building the organizational capacity of our movement. As part of a broader social justice movement, we work to create a nation that respects the diversity of human expression and identity and creates opportunity for all. To learn more, visit www.thetaskforce.org.