Employees at a Barnes & Noble store in Bloomington, Ill. have ratified a new three-year contract under the aegis of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), joining unionized workers at three New York City bookstores, including the company’s flagship Union Square location. The Barnes & Noble Union has secured union healthcare coverage, improved safety equipment such as back braces, wrist guards and stools at information desks and the POS, along with improved job and pay security provisions.
“It’s been a long, difficult year of negotiations and while we had to make a lot of compromises on both sides, in the end our first contract is a win for our booksellers and baristas,” said Zane Crockett, Lead Bookseller at the Bloomington store in a statement. “We now have stools at registers, locked in raises and increased rates of pay for positions for three years, and an excellent healthcare package through the RWDSU for our booksellers and baristas that we are very excited about. We hope we’ve paved the way for other stores now that several locations in the country have reached a contract agreement with Barnes & Noble.”
The contracts are individual to each store and have some slight specifications for each. The ratifying votes were conducted onsite in four separate votes that took place in early March. Workers at each store had voted to be represented by the RWDSU in elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in 2023 and 2024. New York City associates from Barnes & Noble as well as McNally Jackson and the Strand in Union Square had rallied for union protections in November 2024.
“Workers at Barnes & Noble should be incredibly proud of what they’ve accomplished together in these historic first union contracts from Illinois to New York,” said Stuart Applebaum, President of the RWDSU in a statement. “United in their fight for increased safety in their stores, it was their voices across the table that won. Now, we can finally say their longtime safety needs are codified in union contracts, which also include industry standard setting wage increases, union healthcare and more.”
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