OPINION | Macy's Profits Surge While Workers Struggle: Hundreds of Employees Plan Black Friday Strike

by Azia Domingo

These days, it's rare to find workers who stay at their jobs in retail businesses for very long. The pay is low, the schedules can be tough on a family, and working on your feet and engaging with customers all day can be incredibly draining.

I've been at Macy's for 21 years. I truly enjoy creating engaging displays and a great store experience for our customers. Most of all, I really like my coworkers. We spend so much time together, we've become a family. But low pay and a lack of security at our stores is making it harder and harder to fill positions and keep employees. The City of Tukwila did a great thing by passing an increase in the minimum wage, but Macy's isn't doing its part to respect workers by paying fair wages and protecting our safety.

The majority of us are living paycheck to paycheck. With the high cost of living in Washington State, we are struggling to afford food, rent, gas, and other necessities. I stopped getting health insurance through my job because the premiums and copays were so high. I have three children, and if I put all of them on my policy, it would take nearly my entire paycheck. I ask myself, do I really have to go to the doctor or can I tough it out? This is not a question anyone should have to ask.

Meanwhile, according to their shareholder reporting, Macy's is paying its CEO $11 million a year, and the company's profits were more than $2 billion in the past two years combined — even more than before the pandemic. These profits have occurred despite declining full-time employees. Profitability per employee shot up from $8,315 in 2019 to $12,833 in 2023 — an increase of more than 54%. Fewer employees are making Macy's profits soar, and when the company doesn't replace workers who leave, it means those of us on the store floor are doing the work of three or four people.

To add insult to injury, we don't feel safe at work. Macy's isn't doing nearly enough to make our stores safe for workers and customers. We are often face-to-face with thieves, some of whom brandish knives and guns. But when we call security or the police, many workers have experienced retaliation, been suspended, or even lost their jobs.

In my store, recently a customer fainted, but employees were hesitant to call 911 because of what had happened to other workers who got in trouble for doing that. Do I call for help to deal with a safety threat, or is that risking my job? Another question Macy's workers shouldn't have to ask ourselves.If Macy's can spend millions on the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, and millions more on Fourth of July fireworks and other marketing events, it can afford to pay workers who make the store run better every day. Everybody deserves a livable wage, affordable health care, and to feel safe. Macy's needs to step up and do the right thing for workers like us. And if it doesn't, with the power of our union UFCW 3000, hundreds of us are prepared to strike starting on Black Friday.

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Azia Domingo lives in Renton and has worked at Macy's Southcenter as a support team member for 21 years.

Featured Image: A Macy's storefront in Springfield, Missouri, in 2019. (Photo by damann/Shutterstock.com.)