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2/24Macy's Protest In Santa Clara Over Discrimination
On Feb 24 at 12 noon at the Valley Fair Macy's in Santa Clara will protest the discriminatory firings of Palestinian American women Alia Atawneh & Hiam Yassine.
Stop Macy's Discriminatory Firings
Rehire Alia & Hiam!
Solidarity Picket/Protest
Sunday Feb 24, 2002 12:00 Noon
Macy's At The Valley Fair Shopping Center
2801 Steven's Creek Blvd/N. Winchester St. Santa Clara
Off Highway 280 & 880-Highway17
Following the 9/11 events, Arab Americans, Muslims and other minorities throughout the US came under attack. These chauvinist and racist attacks have led to the firings of workers and constant harassment on the job and in the streets. One of the most flagrant violators of democratic rights has been Macy's Department store, which is owned by the Federated Department Stores chain.
Alia Atawneh, a Palestinian American women was working as a clerk in the Westfield Shopping Valley Fair in San Jose. On 9/27 a customer began to berate her because of her nationality. He denounced "her people and said she had no right to work in the United States."
Alia asked what evidence he had that "her people" had done the attack. The customer then called the manager of the department and a week later Aila was fired by Macy's. This clear and overt violation of Aila's civil rights must be protested! Macy's has also fired Hiam Yassine, another Palestinian America clerk who is also a Moslem. She was fired for "giving a a customer a discount of 10% on a handbag". She was giving no warning and her firing was announced to all the staff. We demand that Macy's apologize for these actions, provide monetary compensation and rehire Alia Atawneh and Hiam Yassine. On Sunday February 24 at 12:00 there will be a solidarity demonstration for Aila & Hiam at the Santa Clara Macy's at the Valley Fair Shopping Center.
We call on all trade unionists, supporters of civil rights and community activists to bring your banners and posters on the picket line. We cannot allow Aila & Hiam to fight alone in their battle for their civil liberties. Please get your union or organization to pass a resolution in support of Alia & Hiam and send a letter to Macy's protesting their firings and demanding that they be rehired.
Contact Federated Department Stores at
http://www.federated-fds.com/contact/reachus.asp?frompage=
Endorsed By Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee SF Chapter, IMAN Network, NWU-UAW 1871 BA Chapter, Media Alliance, Bay Area Workers Democracy Network, Peninsula Peace & Justice Center, Freedom Socialist Party, Radical Women, Labor Video Project, America Moslem Alliance, BA Anti-War Coaliation, Town Hall Committee Against the War and Hate, Ex-Congressman Pete McCloskey, Mary Ann Ring Secretary UCSF AFSCME 2299*
For more information on this action or to endorse, Contact:
(415)282-1908 or united [at] labornet.org
* For Information Only
Rehire Alia & Hiam!
Solidarity Picket/Protest
Sunday Feb 24, 2002 12:00 Noon
Macy's At The Valley Fair Shopping Center
2801 Steven's Creek Blvd/N. Winchester St. Santa Clara
Off Highway 280 & 880-Highway17
Following the 9/11 events, Arab Americans, Muslims and other minorities throughout the US came under attack. These chauvinist and racist attacks have led to the firings of workers and constant harassment on the job and in the streets. One of the most flagrant violators of democratic rights has been Macy's Department store, which is owned by the Federated Department Stores chain.
Alia Atawneh, a Palestinian American women was working as a clerk in the Westfield Shopping Valley Fair in San Jose. On 9/27 a customer began to berate her because of her nationality. He denounced "her people and said she had no right to work in the United States."
Alia asked what evidence he had that "her people" had done the attack. The customer then called the manager of the department and a week later Aila was fired by Macy's. This clear and overt violation of Aila's civil rights must be protested! Macy's has also fired Hiam Yassine, another Palestinian America clerk who is also a Moslem. She was fired for "giving a a customer a discount of 10% on a handbag". She was giving no warning and her firing was announced to all the staff. We demand that Macy's apologize for these actions, provide monetary compensation and rehire Alia Atawneh and Hiam Yassine. On Sunday February 24 at 12:00 there will be a solidarity demonstration for Aila & Hiam at the Santa Clara Macy's at the Valley Fair Shopping Center.
We call on all trade unionists, supporters of civil rights and community activists to bring your banners and posters on the picket line. We cannot allow Aila & Hiam to fight alone in their battle for their civil liberties. Please get your union or organization to pass a resolution in support of Alia & Hiam and send a letter to Macy's protesting their firings and demanding that they be rehired.
Contact Federated Department Stores at
http://www.federated-fds.com/contact/reachus.asp?frompage=
Endorsed By Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee SF Chapter, IMAN Network, NWU-UAW 1871 BA Chapter, Media Alliance, Bay Area Workers Democracy Network, Peninsula Peace & Justice Center, Freedom Socialist Party, Radical Women, Labor Video Project, America Moslem Alliance, BA Anti-War Coaliation, Town Hall Committee Against the War and Hate, Ex-Congressman Pete McCloskey, Mary Ann Ring Secretary UCSF AFSCME 2299*
For more information on this action or to endorse, Contact:
(415)282-1908 or united [at] labornet.org
* For Information Only
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The Valley Fair shopping center has a Macy's department store
+AT BOTH ENDS+ of the mall.
To avoid an embarassing case of having demonstrators wandering aimlessly back and forth wondering if they're in the right spot, the organizers of the demo should pick one of them as the demo site and describe it clearly. VF (especially after the recent expansions) is an easy place to get lost in for anyone visiting from out of town.
At the SAn Jose Coalition meeting, we decided that the best place was the Macy's near 880/17, we plan to be inbetween the two parking structures where people can see us. It is also suposedly the busiest entrance to the store.
your friend, Adam
Posted on Sat, Feb. 16, 2002
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/news/columnists/la_chung/2685076.htm
Fired woman's tale met with boycotts, misdirected anger
By L.A. Chung
San Jose Mercury News
Whew. I suggested a little while ago that the South Bay and the Peninsula might be heartless. That the community was remiss in its apparent failure to support a Macy's sales associate who was fired apparently for her ethnic origin, so much so that a group of San Francisco residents were rallying to support her.
In short order, one reader who works with low-wage, high-tech workers let me know there was a demonstration being planned soon near Macy's Valley Fair store over the firing of Alia Atawneh and a second Palestinian woman, Hiam Yassine.
And others have decided to demonstrate with their wallets.
``My wife and I have cut up our Macy's charge card and sent it to the Valley Fair store,'' wrote Eric Apfelstadt of San Jose, calling Atawneh's firing ``an apparent contradiction of values all Americans should hold most dear.''
Spirited response
Readers burned up the phone lines and filled my e-mail box. There is a lot of heart out there. Ooh, and a lot of misdirected anger.
``Dear missguiged (sic) twit; If you do not like it here, why don't you and your ignorant little stock clerk buddy just hop on a plane and leave . . . PERMANENTLY!!'' wrote Ken Groat of San Jose. Yes, well. That's the spirit.
I had written about Atawneh, a 28-year-old immigrant and permanent resident who had been fired from the store after a customer had berated her and ``her people'' after the Sept. 11 attacks. Within a couple of weeks, she was fired. Since Atawneh has said she was not offering any opinions and was horrified by what happened on Sept. 11, it seemed galling that a customer's complaint and co-workers' remarks seemed to be enough to get her bounced.
Other customers
This column suggested that if the customer is always right -- and Macy's had listened to one customer, after all -- there might be enough other customers to let Macy's know that they wanted Atawneh rehired and treated fairly.
The Rev. Larry Walton of San Jose called to let me know he was not going to shop at Macy's until he'd heard the situation was resolved in Atawneh's favor. Period. If need be, ``I can live the rest of my life without Macy's,'' he said. ``There are lots of other stores out there.''
``I need to correct you on this matter,'' wrote Jim Dunn of Los Gatos. People in Santa Clara Valley do care, he said. He had written my colleague, Howard Mintz, after his story appeared about Atawneh's firing, and now refuses to shop at Macy's. ``I will not shop there until I hear they have admitted a terrible injustice. . . . Please let Alia know I care.''
On the other end of the spectrum, some readers from Fremont to San Jose were quite upset with the column. Some are angry that Macy's side wasn't there. I tried. Rina Nieman at Macy's said store officials don't talk about such matters. Leaving aside a few flaming ``America-love-it-or-leave-it'' responses, these incensed readers seemed to read the column as saying Atawneh had, indeed, made anti-American statements. She hasn't.
Law of the land
Several readers thought the column contained too much of my opinion and suggested the column be moved to the opinion page. A tip: Columnists are, by definition, supposed to have opinions. Our pictures and names at the top of an article are the tip-off: Opinion coming, not a news story.
It shouldn't make a darn bit of difference, but for some people support seemed to hedge on whether Atawneh is a U.S. citizen.
``Is she an American?'' asked Michael Araiza of Sunnyvale in a voice-mail message. ``I just think if she's in this country and something like that happens, by all means and all rights it shouldn't happen. But if she's not an American, then I, myself, might question a person being over here less than a year, getting a job and now she wants to sue and go back to her country.''
For the record, Atawneh is a permanent resident who has been here four years, is married to a U.S. citizen, is nearly eligible to be a citizen herself, and isn't planning on leaving, says her lawyer. While U.S. citizens have a lot more privilege in many areas, from passports to voting rights to the ability to hold federal jobs, the Constitution guarantees equal protection under the law to anyone in this country. Since none of us native-born Americans are required to take a test to hold citizenship, we're often quite fuzzy on such basics in the supreme law of our land. You can question it all you want, but that's what the founding fathers expressly laid out. Check it out.
Workers' rights
And about suing . . . well, that's what you're left with when you feel you've been fired unjustly. Had Atawneh been working for Macy's in San Francisco, where employees are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, there would be a grievance process and probably no lawsuit, said Diane Scanlon-Holland, director of Local 101's retail division.
In fact, Local 428 in the South Bay now sees an organizing opportunity at Macy's Valley Fair store. ``This is the kind of thing that opens people's eyes,'' said Ron Lind, the secretary-treasurer for Local 428. ``If they're going after Muslims, who are they going to go after tomorrow?''