RAP is a community labor partnership of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) and Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES).
What does RAP do?
RAP educates retail workers about their rights, raises public awareness about injustices in the retail industry, and runs strategic campaigns to hold retailers accountable for unfair wages and working conditions and to raise workplace standards.
Strategic Campaigns
Services and Education
Support on Workplace Issues
Art and Culture
Media
Policy and Research
A Changing Economy
A 2008 report from the Fiscal Policy Institute found that 36% of NYC retail workers are their family’s sole provider and that 90,000 children in NYC have parents who are retail workers.
Low Wages & Poor Working Conditions
In addition to low wages, retail workers typically have no paid sick, personal, or vacation days, and are offered either unaffordable health benefits or no health benefits at all. Furthermore, they often have to put up with understaffing, unsafe working conditions, and disrespectful managers.
Labor Law Violations
A 2010 report by the National Employment Law Project found that in a given week, over 77% of NYC workers who worked overtime were not paid the legally required time-and-a-half for hours worked over 40. NELP estimates that in a given week, low-wage NYC workers lose $18.4 million in wage theft.
It doesn’t have to be this way!
A 2007 study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that if Wal-Mart paid its employees $10 per hour, it would provide significant, concentrated benefits to Wal-Mart workers, the majority in low-income families, while the costs would be dispersed in small amounts among many consumers across the income spectrum.
RAP members know that by coming together, we can improve conditions and make retail workers’ voices heard.
RAP Campaigns
Justice for Yellow Rat Bastard Workers!
Workers Fight for Justice at Shoe Mania, Scoop NYC, & Mystique Boutique
Living Wage NYC
The Retail Action Project (RAP) is a membership organization for retail workers dedicated to improving the wages and working conditions in the retail industry. We are a growing network of retail workers who work together to win living wages, benefits and respect in all retail stores.
RAP has helped workers organize for legal rights at work and helped thousands of retail workers win back millions in unpaid wages. We help retail workers to address systemic problems on the job through legal action and collective action.
Our job services help members learn their legal rights, write resumes, find jobs, file for unemployment insurance, and obtain job training, such as our popular Customer Service Training through LaGuardia Community College.
Organizers and other RAP members provide counseling, advice and organizing assistance for workers having problems on the job. Learn how to improve conditions at work; learn your legal rights. Speak with workers who have organized their workplaces to learn different tactics for asserting your rights on the job.
Retail workers and community allies work together to make retail worker experiences more visible through RAP’s Common Threads Art Collective (CTAC). CTAC uses public art and creative actions to raise awareness to retail workers’ issues and support RAP’s campaigns. CTAC often works in video, graphic design, sculpture, poetry and performance.
Retail workers are having their voices heard and drawing public attention to the issues retail workers face in the stores through the RAP Media Team. RAP members have been heard through countless media outlets including, CBS News, the New York Times, and the Daily News.
RAP researches current wages and working conditions and works to raise industry standards through strengthening public policy. RAP is a part of Living Wage NYC, a citywide coalition aimed at securing living wages for workers in publicly-subsidized projects. We advocate for workers to earn livable wages of at least $10/hr with benefits. Click here for more info on Living Wage NYC.
Why organize retail workers?
As the economy becomes ever more oriented towards the service sector, more of us are finding ourselves in low-wage jobs with no benefits or guaranteed hours. The old myths that retail workers don’t have bills to pay or families to support are being quickly eroded as more people are seeing the realities of retail work.
Despite being some of the most profitable companies in the world, retailers pay some of the lowest wages to their employees. The Fiscal Policy Institute’s report found that 44% of NYC retail workers earn $10 per hour or less.
On top of these already difficult work environments, many retailers knowingly flout the law by paying illegally low wages and not paying overtime. RAP has helped workers win millions in unpaid wages, but we still have a long way to go!
Companies pretend they can’t afford to pay workers any more than the poverty wages they currently pay. We know better! Countless examples have shown us that a well-treated workforce is good for business!
Workers of the Yellow Rat Bastard (YRB) retail chain have something no other SoHo retail workers has – a union contract that legally guarantees job security, raises, paid time off and steady hours. This exciting victory was won after RAP helped nearly 1,000 current and former YRB workers win $1.4 million in unpaid wages through a lawsuit by the New York State Attorney General’s office. Click here for more info on YRB.
Workers at these three clothing chains are organizing with RAP to challenge multiple labor law violations and win the respect they deserve. Workers are utilizing legal tools, street actions, and workplace organizing to recover millions in unpaid wages. Click for more info on Shoe Mania, Scoop NYC, Mystique Boutique.
RAP is part of a citywide coalition aimed at securing living wages for workers in city-subsidized projects. We advocate for workers to earn livable wages of at least $11.50/hr or $10/hr with benefits. Click here for more info on Living Wage NYC.
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What is RAP?