Sept. 22--Chicago employees of posh department store Barneys New York are seeking to unionize, with a chief concern being a company policy that requires sales associates to push the store credit card or face disciplinary action.
About 70 percent of the company's 75 Chicago sales associates and shipping and distribution workers have signed cards indicating they wish to unionize, said Carlos Ginard, communications director for Workers United, which says it has represented the New York employees of Barneys for about 50 years.
Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, filed a union election petition with the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday and is now awaiting a date to take a vote.
Officials at Barney's declined to comment.
At issue are two main concerns, employees said at a news conference announcing the Chicago unionization efforts Monday morning.
One is pay fairness. Shipping department workers start at $13 an hour ($27,040 a year) and get raises "sporadically and arbitrarily," the organizers said. In addition, sales associates, who get a base hourly wage as well as commission, say the company is starting some new hires at higher wages than veterans get.
Another was a policy, implemented in August, that required sales associates to open at least two store credit cards for customers monthly or risk disciplinary action.
Dragana Stupar, a sales associate at Barneys for 17 years, said she opened one credit card account in August and got a letter the next month saying that if she didn't hit the monthly quota she would be terminated in six months.
While it used to be easy to sign people up for credit cards with incentives like 10 percent off, Stupar said the new cards offer no incentives for customers or employees and people are less interested.
"I can't make anyone open an account, and I can't be losing my job over something that's ultimately not my decision," Stupar said.
Barneys on Thursday sent a letter rescinding the monthly credit card goal, but it stated that failure to request that customers fill out the credit card application form could result in disciplinary action. "That's even worse," Stupar said, because sometimes associates forget or it doesn't feel appropriate to offer the credit card.
Barneys in 2012 was bought by hedge fund Perry Capital and private equity firm Yucaipa. The store credit card is owned by Comenity Bank, whose parent company, Alliance Data Systems, bought Barneys private-label credit card portfolio for $37.1 million in 2013, according to government filings.
Stupar said she worries longtime employees are being pushed out.
"Why are they doing this? I'm puzzled," she said, adding that she wants to join a union to feel more secure in her job.
aelejalderuiz@tribpub.com
