DNAinfo
Nicole Breskin
GREENWICH VILLAGE — Retail workers, activists and politicians turned out in droves to protest neighborhood business chains that are selling pricey top-named brands but aren’t paying employees fair wages.
The Retail Action Project organized a march Wednesday that began near Scoop NYC in SoHo, passed by Mystique Boutique and stopped for a rally in front of Shoe Mania at 654 Broadway in Greenwich Village. The event protested the millions of dollars that the stores, which sell brands like Jimmy Choo, Michael Kors and Lacoste, allegedly deprived their workers of in unpaid wages.
“The kind of local employment that steals wages from workers and doesn’t pay a sufficient wage and doesn’t follow the rules, that’s not real, true local retail,” said State Senator Daniel Squadron to a rousing cheer from the crowd. “That is retail that is sucking from the community.”
Ahmed Dalhatu, who worked as a stock worker for three years at the now closed Shoe Mania on 11 W. 34th St. said he was barely compensated enough to pay rent, let alone support his unemployed wife and raise money to go to school.
“I would have left but it was too difficult to find another job with the hours I was working,” said Dalhatu, who clocked more than 65 hours a week but allegedly never received any overtime pay.
Nearly 150 Shoe Mania employees banded together to file a lawsuit against the store late last year for $3 million in unpaid wages. Workers of SoHo-based Mystique Boutique are also demanding $2 million in back wages, and Scoop NYC is being sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“New Yorkers have zero tolerance for employer lawlessness and that retail workers deserve a living wage,” said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
According to the National Employment Law Project, workers lose more than $18.4 million per week in earned wages.
“We want good, paying jobs,” said City Councilwoman Margaret Chin at the rally. “Because if you want to do business in this city, you better support the workers.”
Owners at Shoe Mania, Scoop NYC and Mystique Boutique did not return calls for comment.