March, 2013

Economic Justice, Macy's and Bloomingdale's, Retail, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

Macy’s Workers Continue to Struggle as Top Executives Collect Millions

Mar 18, 2013

As many Macy’s workers struggle to survive on low pay and insufficient schedules to qualify for health care, Macy’s executives are doing quite well.

A few weeks ago, Macy’s Inc. CEO Terry Lundgren and ten other Macy’s executives received a handsome payout in the form of 727,000 shares of performance restricted stocks. Macy’s paid more than $11 million to Lundgren and ten other executives collected more than $14.4 million in the form of performance restricted stock units.

The retail sector is the largest industry by employment in the United States, and retail jobs are setting the working and living standards for thousands of American workers.  That’s why it’s critically important that Macy’s and other employers in this industry compensate workers with the kind of pay and benefits that allow them to live in the middle class.

Academic studies, including a recent report by Demos, provide quantitative evidence that retailers, workers and the U.S. economy can benefit if retail companies invest in their workforce.  According to the Demos report, raising wages for full-time retail workers at the nation’s largest retail companies (those employing at least 1,000 workers) would result in improving the lives of more than 1.5 million retail workers and their families who are currently living in or hovering above poverty.

For more information about Macy’s executives and their generous stock options, visit http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2013/03/04/macys-execs-get-millions-in-stock.html.

Barack Obama, Politics, Press Releases

UFCW President Hansen Statement On the Nomination of Tom Perez As Labor Secretary

Mar 18, 2013

http://www.ufcw.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/UFCWnews.jpgWASHINGTON, D.C. — Joe Hansen, International President of the UFCW, today released the following statement in response to the nomination of Tom Perez as the next Secretary of Labor.

“The UFCW strongly supports the nomination of Tom Perez as Labor Secretary. Tom led the Maryland Department of Labor with excellence and is strongly qualified for this post. Now more than ever, workers need a champion at the Department that will fight for fair wages, safe workplaces, and the right to organize. I am confident Tom Perez will provide that leadership.”

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The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food processing and poultry industries. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream. For more information about the UFCW’s effort to protect workers’ rights and strengthen America’s middle class, visit www.ufcw.org, or join our online community at www.facebook.com/UFCWinternational and www.twitter.com/ufcw.

 

Barack Obama, Constituency Groups, Immigration, Legislation, Packing and Processing, Politics, Social Justice, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, United Latinos, War on Workers

UFCW and Allies Write Open Letter to President Obama and Congress Calling for Stronger Family-Based Immigration Reform

Mar 15, 2013

Yesterday, the UFCW, along with a long list of other immigrants’ rights, civil rights, and faith-based organizations, wrote to President Obama and Congress to call for protections of a family-based immigration system in the ongoing fight for immigration reform legislation.

Currently, some members of the senate are writing an immigration bill that would severely limit access to green cards for extended family members of current American citizens. Senator Lindsay Graham, R-SC, who is part of a bipartisan senate committee for immigration reform, “indicated that he would prefer to eliminate” the current immigration clauses that allow citizens to petition for their married children and siblings to be brought to the U.S.

The UFCW, along with countless other organizations, believes that “families belong together”, no matter what their immigration status. Also, we believe that family relationships cannot be summed up by name – aunts and uncles can be just as close to someone as mothers and fathers, and cousins can be like brothers and sisters.  It is unfair that someone be denied a green card simply because their title isn’t included in the traditional nuclear family unit.

Written in the letter to Congress and President Obama, is the fact that “as of November 2012, nearly 4.3 million loved ones are waiting in the family visa backlogs.” Thousands of people from Mexico, China and other Asian countries, and elsewhere around the world have been waiting for years to be reunited with loved ones in the U.S.  Also noted, was the fact that “strengthening the current family-based immigration system is good for our economy and is commonsense policy for the United States.”  Turning away from a family-based system to focus on the economy doesn’t make sense, because, as said in the letter:

“A robust family-based immigration has significant economic benefits, especially for long-term economic growth of the United States. Family-based immigrants foster innovation and development of new businesses, particularly small and medium-sized businesses that would not otherwise exist, creating jobs for American workers and raising revenues for our recovering economy. Families also provide support and care for young children and the elderly, allowing others to focus on building the businesses and contributing to American society.”

UFCW and our allies hope that the President and Congress will uphold the family-based values that America was built on, and do what is right for working America.