SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Employees at the Macy’s store in San Francisco’s Union Square threatened to go on strike this morning — on one of the company’s biggest days of the year.
But at the last minute, they decided not to go through with it.
90-percent of the retail workers at Macy’s in the Union Square area voted to authorize a strike they would not be working on Black Friday, a very busy time for customers.
But that’s not going to be the case today.
It looks like they have canceled this strike but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to strike in the future.
They have authorized a strike for some time this holiday season.
But why are they striking in the first place?
It looks like Macy’s for nearly six months has been negotiating with their workers and they’ve been attempting to figure out a new contract.
This is all addressing the mounting of economic inequality and then also figuring out health insurance.
The most pressing thing that they’re dealing with is the health care costs, making it affordable because right now workers say is very un-affordable for most Macy’s workers and their families.
They say only 1/3 of Macy’s employees are enrolled in coverage, to ensure a family of four, an employee must pay $1070 monthly for a basic Kaiser Care health plan.
So employees are angry and saying this is just completely outrageous.
They were originally supposed to strike on Black Friday, which really would’ve made a big statement.
KRON4 has reached out the president of the Union, but has yet to hear back.
At last check, the president did say if they didn’t strike on Black Friday, they’d strike later in the holiday season.
Macy’s hasn’t responded to what they’re doing at the bargaining table, but they did say if the strike happens today, they will still be open.