Our Perspective
New Yorkers Deserve
More from Macy’s
than Fireworks
By Stuart Appelbaum, President
Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW
Twitter: @sappelbaum
Caribbean Life, April 24-30, 2020 29
CFU president and CONCACAF executive member, Randy Harris. Photo by
George Alleyne
Is CONCACAF slighting
Caribbean Football Union
By George Alleyne
Is the Caribbean Football Union (CFU),
whose membership comprise the majority
by far in the Confederation of North, Central
American and Caribbean Association
Football (CONCACAF), being relegated to
a secondary position within the group?
Recent comments by two former CFU
and CONCACAF administrators, Lisle
Austin and Austin ‘Jack’ Warner, have
given rise to speculation that the Caribbean
grouping, which has 28 full member
countries in the 41-member body for the
Americas, has lost its place as an equal
partner, and is now being treated as an
inferior union that needs to catch up
with Central and North American associations.
In a recent nation newspaper article,
Austin, a Barbadian, took issue with a
Canadian, from the three-member North
American grouping, being elected CONCACAF
president of the Federation of the
Americas.
“Canada has never been a powerful
nation to support the region in its
development of football and the Central
American countries haven’t been
either,” said Austin, a veteran Barbados
football administrator, and who stood in
as temporary head of CONCACAF when
Warner was suspended amid bribery
allegations.
Canadian, Victor Montagliani, was
elected Concacaf head in May 2016.
“It was a poor error in judgement to
have elected the Canadian or someone
from the United States or Mexico,” he
said in naming the north American
CONCAF members. “It was a reversal
of the forward movements the regional
countries were making.”
Contending the CFU now has the
fewest members of all the other federations
sitting on FIFA committees, he
said, “it is going to be a long time for the
Caribbean to get any power from their
numbers again”.
Warner, a former president of CFU
and CONCACAF and a FIFA vice-president
who was banned from football amid
corruption allegations and is wanted by
the US Justice Department on related
charges, contended that current CFU
leaders were soothed with little financial
offerings from CONCACAF members
from Central and North America,
and relinquished CFU’s formerly strong
position within the Americas body.
“Look at the World Cup qualifying
competition when in the past we
had an open draw and Mexico would
play Dominica, etcetera,” he said in a
recent interview on a Trinidadian TV
programme, ‘ViewPoint’.
The CONCACAF World Cup qualifying
tournament recently changed format,
forcing all CFU members – except Trinidad
– and some Central American teams
to go through an exhausting home and
away play-off, out of which six best performing
sides will meet a select set of six
teams that were given automatic places
in the World Cup qualifiers.
Five of the select teams are Central
and North American
Warner charged that this new World
Cup format was designed because Trinidad
and Tobago beat the USA in the last
qualifiers thereby booting the Americans
out of that tournament. “They
have made an elitist draw. They have
taken six countries out, top countries,
and the poorest countries are the ones
who have to travel the most, and then to
qualify to play against them.
“Nobody Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica,
Barbados in the Caribbean said a
single word … to this day … about the
travesty that is a World Cup qualifying
competition in CONCACAF.
“That couldn’t happen in my time.”
Current CFU president and CONCACAF
executive member, Randy Harris,
who was elected in 2018 and against
whom the attacks appear subtly directed,
has reportedly so far not directly
addressed these allegations.
Macy’s announcement that it wanted to go
ahead with its July 4th fireworks display
in the midst of this pandemic should be
disturbing to all New Yorkers for several reasons.
Macy’s should not be spending millions on fireworks after laying off
its entire workforce. Most of their employees cannot even afford health
care coverage at this time. Many Macy’s employees have worked for the
company for decades, and now they are on the street with nothing from
their employer.
Furthermore, they are putting New Yorkers at risk unnecessarily – in
order to use our city as a backdrop for their nationally televised commercial
for themselves. Most New Yorkers don’t have balconies overlooking the
East River. The last thing we want to do is to encourage people to come
together in large groups in order to see fireworks. Social distancing at
the fireworks display is a joke. That is why Mayor de Blasio rightfully
cancelled other large events for the entire month of June, including the
Pride Parade which would have been held just a few days before.
If Macy’s really cares about New Yorkers, they should be spending
that money on healthcare coverage for their hardworking New York
employees. That would be the real way to show your patriotism.
But that’s not even the worst of it. What is even more outrageous is
that Macy’s is insisting on holding contract negotiations in the midst of
Governor Cuomo’s “stay at home” order. Yes, the contract between Macy’s
and its workers’ union is expiring soon. The stores are closed, nobody is
working, and neither party has any clue what the future will hold. How do
you negotiate in good faith when the company is unable to tell you when
each store will reopen or how it will reopen, or for what hours and with
what staffing needs? And nobody has any clue what customer traffic will
look like when New York’s economy does begin to re-open.
Macy’s even suggested having the three dozen members of the
union’s negotiating committee travel from all over New York City to
Manhattan for face-to-face negotiations at the beginning of May – in
defiance of Governor Cuomo’s “stay at home” order.
As we have done elsewhere, we have proposed postponing
negotiations and extending the current contract until both sides will
have some sense of what the future will look like and what we will be
negotiating for. We suggested extending the current contract for a year,
and Macy’s said “no.” We then suggested extending the contract for at
least six months, and Macy’s again said “no.”
So why is Macy’s insisting on negotiating now? It simply appears that
they are trying to take advantage of this current crisis for their own ends.
It defies common sense to insist these negotiations go on in the
coming weeks. Workers cannot adequately prepare for contract
negotiations with so many unknowns. Nor is there any serious need to
do it now.
We are all adapting to our new reality as New York responds to this
crisis. Macy’s needs to adapt to this reality now. Just as it shouldn’t be
promising a fireworks show that encourages New
Yorkers to gather in crowds to enjoy it, Macy’s
shouldn’t pretend that it’s business as usual when
it comes to these negotiations. This “pause” is
for everybody Macy’s, even you.
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