Workers Rally in Support of Nordstrom : Labor: Employees at festive demonstration give testimonials to upscale store amid reports of in-house dissatisfaction.
In an unusual demonstration of corporate loyalty, about 300 Nordstrom employees rallied Wednesday in a parking lot outside the retailer’s South Coast Plaza store to show support for the company, which is embroiled in a pay dispute with some workers.
Toting balloons and signs with such slogans as “My Job Is No. 1” and “I Love Being a Nordie,” the employees gathered around a stage before the South Coast Plaza store opened to hear testimonials and dance to a recording of the James Brown song “I Feel Good!”
Similar employee-organized rallies have taken place in the past few weeks in Seattle, San Francisco and San Diego in response to news reports that some Nordstrom sales clerks have complained of feeling pressured to perform such personalized services as writing thank-you notes to customers or delivering merchandise without overtime pay.
Last month, the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries found that the Nordstrom chain had violated the state’s minimum-wage laws. The National Labor Relations Board charged that the fast-growing, Seattle-based retailer has sidestepped the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents about 2,000 Seattle-area Nordstrom employees.
Seeking to resolve the dispute, Nordstrom executives voluntarily established a $15-million fund for back pay to affected workers and vowed to revise the company’s payroll procedures.
Little was said about the company’s recent troubles at the parking-lot rally Wednesday.
Robert Mellon, a Santa Ana menswear salesman who expressed his support for the store, mentioned that some customers have asked him: “Aren’t you on strike? Aren’t you fill-in employees?”
Nordstrom’s sales employees in Southern California are not unionized. Employees attending the rally said they do not believe that the labor problems in Seattle are common throughout the retail chain. However, The Times last month interviewed several current and former employees of Nordstrom’s Southern California stores who described similar complaints.
At Wednesday’s rally, speakers emphasized that they were there without pressure or inducement from management.
Jammie Baugh, vice president and general manager of Nordstrom’s Southern California stores, said the rally was “heartwarming” and shows deep, personal attachment to the company. She said she was invited to attend, but declined so that employees would get the full credit for putting on the event in the eyes of the public.
“It makes us feel great. We’re always proud of them. We’re proud to be part of a group like that,” she said.
Kathy Ogden, a cosmetics saleswoman in the South Coast store, said she organized the rally with her sister, Linda Kranc, who also works at the store, to counter the wave of negative publicity.
“I got mad,” Ogden explained. “The union says they are speaking for all (employees) and they are not. Nobody speaks for us except us. It’s a matter of pride.”
The Times Orange County Edition unsuccessfully attempted to contact union representatives in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
Ogden said the rally drew employees from Nordstrom stores in South Coast Plaza, Brea, Cerritos, Montclair and Santa Ana, a district warehouse in Ontario and the Nordstrom Rack outlet in Santa Ana. She said organizers borrowed stage and sound equipment from the Nordstrom store and kicked in for the costs of coffee and balloons.
Some employees said the company came to their aid when they were ill or injured. Wheelchair-bound Joe Babakanian drew cheers as he explained how after a crippling auto accident five years ago the company paid off his $600,000 in medical bills and rehired him as a telephone operator. Karen Erdman, who works at the South Coast store, said the company sent flowers when she was seriously injured in an auto accident.
