2017 NYC CLC Awards Reception: Meet the Honorees: Retail Action Project (RAP)

RAP is an organization of retail workers organizing for better standards and opportunities in the retail industry. RAP’s growing membership network of over 2,000 workers is a voice for retail workers employed by major retailers across the industry, ranging from bargain chains to high-end, luxury department stores.

RAP’s membership reflects the diversity of the retail workforce; primarily people of color, immigrants, and women – many of them young and LGBTQ. Together with community and labor allies, RAP members are impacting retailers’ labor practices and the public policies that affect their lives. They are building power to fight wage theft, unfair scheduling and discrimination and elevate the quality of jobs in one of the country's fastest growing sectors.

RAP develops the leadership of retail workers to advance long-term industry change through organizing, public policy, political education, industry research and media. We also support retail workers’ paths toward career security and advancement through our robust and industry-specific workforce development programs.

RAP has helped thousands of low-wage New York City retail workers fight wage theft and win millions in unpaid wages, organize to increase the minimum wage and take on abusive employer practices store-by- store, building a vibrant membership base. RAP emerged from a community-labor partnership founded in 2005 between the Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU, UFCW) dedicated to fighting wage theft. RAP continues to work closely with and within labor and with other community partners to win change in the retail industry.