Do the right thing by workers

As clergy leaders from Queens Congregations United for Action we minister to families from all walks of life who are struggling to make ends meet during this holiday season.   It is not just that we are living through economic hard times.  The truth is that it has become much more difficult for working people in Queens and across New York to turn hard work into a better life for themselves and their children.   It is harder for people in our congregations to pay for housing, send their children to college and save for retirement.  And that is not good for families, congregations or our city.

The good news is that while growing inequality may seem overwhelming, there are concrete things we can do right here in our communities to change the story.   Our faith-based alliance of congregations in Queens has joined a righteous fight to increase wages and working conditions in New York City, beginning with the Queens Center Mall.  We are fueled by a vision where everyone has access to a good job, which is the primary pathway out of poverty, into the middle class, and achieving the American Dream.

The Queens Center Mall is an example of a large employer in our city that is not sharing in the sacrifice our families have all had to make. It is one of the most profitable mall in the United States. And its owner, the Macerich Corporation, has received $50 million in taxpayer subsidies, and is due to receive millions more.  Yet most of the 3,000 jobs at the Queens Center Mall pay at or barely above the minimum $7.25 per hour with no benefits.

Families from our community are spending millions of hard-earned dollars at the Mall this Christmas season and throughout the year. Yet, they are finding that despite hard work, they cannot earn enough to support their families with dignity.  Too many have to choose between a bus fare to go to work and food for the table.  The American middle class was built by paying workers a decent wage so they could buy the products they make.  We’ve lost sight of the simple truth that we all benefit when we all have economic opportunity.

This Christmas, Queens Congregations United for Action, along with Make the Road NY and the Retail, Wholesale, & Department Store Union (RWDSU), call upon Macerich to share more equitably in the fruits of the labor of those who work in and shop at the Queens Center Mall. Over 5,500 community members, along with State Senator José Peralta, State Assembly Members Francisco Moya and Jeffrion Aubry, and City Council Members Julissa Ferreras, and Daniel Dromm have signed post cards urging Macerich to adopt a living wage provision in lease agreements for all mall workers of $10 with benefits or $11.50 without benefits, a union neutrality agreement, and community space for programs and services that serve our families.

Macerich, also the owner of the Shops at Atlas Park in Glendale, is actively bidding to the NYC Economic Development Corporation to develop Willets Point, which will include 680,000 square feet of retail space in Phase I. If Macerich fails to contribute to the economic health of our community, it should not receive public support to expand its footprint in New York City.

Christmas is a time for giving.  It is a time in which we remember that God so loved the world that he humbled himself to become one of us so that he may raise us up and conquer the darkness of selfishness, indifference, injustice and countless other evils that can destructively corrode the goodness of our God-given lives.   A well-known scripture passage used at Christmas time to describe the coming of the Messiah is from Isaiah 9: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; ..for the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder, and the rod of their taskmaster you have smashed.“ 

Christmas time is a time we celebrate the birth of Christ who came to show us how to love our neighbor, so that we may live in a way that does not oppress but rather lifts people up.

Let us not forget the true meaning of Christmas by remembering those walking in the darkness and burdened by poverty wages everywhere, especially at the Queens Center Mall. Our faith, and our shared values, requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves.  This Christmas, we will call on the Queens Center Mall owner to be a better neighbor by giving back to the community and help us rebuild the middle class in New York.

The Rev. Darrell Da Costa, Pastor, St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, Corona

The Rev. Pierre-Andre Duvert, Pastor, Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, Elmhurst

Monsignor Thomas Healy, Pastor, Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, Corona