Workers at Macy's in Warwick and 4 Massachusetts locations vote to authorize a strike
WARWICK — Unionized workers at five Macy's department stores, including the one at the Warwick Mall, have voted to potentially strike as they continue negotiations with the retailer over a new contract.
Union negotiating team member and sales colleague Anita Hovey said workers want Macy's to bring up the minimum pay at the Warwick store to at least $15 an hour, after the chain announced the higher starting pay for nonunion stores in January.
"We got a best and final offer from Macy's last Friday and we had about 250 people come up and vote last Sunday, and they did take a strike vote," she said.
The stores in Warwick, and Braintree, Peabody and Natick, Massachusetts, are under one union contract. A fifth store, in Boston, is under a different contract, Hovey said. Workers at all five are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445.
Union has authorization to strike
While the union now has authorization to strike, the final decision hasn't been made. Employees plan to hand out pamphlets at the store in Warwick on Friday and at the store in Boston next Wednesday. After the Wednesday demonstration, they will probably know if a strike will happen, Hovey said.
Hovey said negotiations are going nowhere.
"Macy's says they're negotiating in good faith, but they're not giving us any counteroffers," she said.
Macy's employees came back to work after the initial two-month COVID lockdowns in 2020; and the company, which released quarterly earnings on Thursday, is in good financial shape, Hovey said.
According to a news release, sales are up nearly 13% compared to the same quarter in 2021, and the company bought back $600 million of its own shares.
Contract changes sought
Among the changes Hovey said she wants to see to the contract are a wage floor of $15 for Rhode Island workers, since the Massachusetts minimum wage will rise to $15 in 2023, and guaranteed time-and-a-half for Massachusetts workers on Sundays, after the state eliminated its "blue laws" starting in 2019. Rhode Island retail workers are still guaranteed time-and-a-half on Sundays.
"At this point, we don't want to strike, but we will if we have to," she said. "It's a three-year contract and we're looking for fair wages."
If no contract is ratified and the union goes forward with a strike, strike captains will receive a call while they're working and lead all the unionized employees out of store and then they will begin to picket.
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Hovey said she does not think delivery drivers, most of them union members, will be willing to cross the line.
In an email, Macy's External Communications Director Jacqueline King wrote that the company trusts the collective bargaining process and the leaders on both sides.
"We are hopeful that we will reach a deal that is mutually beneficial to the colleagues, the company and the union," she wrote.
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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Macy's Warwick Mall workers authorize strike seeking $15/hour base pay
