Wage Overhaul at Queens Center Mall | Make the Road New York

March 9, 2010

Wage Overhaul at Queens Center Mall

By Holly Tsang / Queens Ledger

Protesters with the Queens Center Mall Campaign picketed the mall’s management office at 90-51 92nd Street on Monday to demand living wages for employees and community space. According to the Queens Center Mall Campaign’s December report, the Macerich Company, which owns Queens Center, receives over $100 million in tax breaks, but most of the 3,100 employees at Queens Center Mall earn an average of just $7.25 per hour with no health benefits.

“When tax dollars are used to subsidize private development, the public has the right to demand that the jobs created pay a living wage,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), a co-convener of the Queens Center Mall Campaign. “The community has the right to demand that it benefits from the taxpayers’ investment."

The groups also requested that Queens Center, a popular hangout for local teens, consider implementing affordable community space for use by community groups providing services like job training, financial counseling, and ESL classes.

“The most profitable mall in New York City should pay a livable wage to its hard-working employees,” said Councilman Daniel Dromm.“This shopping mall received public funds to finance its expansion. Now it must respect the community and its workers by being more responsive and paying higher wages.”

Among the protesters were several part-time JCPenney employees who were laid off last month without warning. Marvin Hernandez’s starting salary was $8 an hour before taxes; his ending salary, $8.35, after three years with the store. JCPenney gave him a severance package, but Hernandez worries that he won’t find a new job before those funds run dry.

“It’s bad enough for us to look for a job because there are hardly any jobs willing to pay more than the minimum. I’m looking for a comfortable place to work that has affordable benefits and will allow me to support my family,” said Hernandez, who takes care of his mother and three brothers.

Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director of Make The Road New York, said the groups were successful in securing a meeting with the property manager for March 19.

“We came here with a clear purpose, and that was to hand deliver a letter and demand a meeting, so we accomplished that,” said Archila. “But the ultimate goal is to make sure that Macerich makes a commitment to make a standard to demand that everyone that leases in the mall pays a living wage with benefits.”

Queens Center Mall spokeswoman Dawn Simon said, “The majority of individuals who work at Queens Center are employed by individual companies, not by Macerich. Macerich adheres to both state and federal regulations and we expect our retailers to do the same. We can’t comment on behalf of our retailers.”

She added that community groups already use the Discover Queens common area in the mall and that there is an additional room adjacent to the management center that community groups are welcome to use.