Bookstores are becoming more unionized

[PSOL]

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-new-york-city-minnesota-health-d1149b584a20bbe4bc56605e953a84c3

“With the pandemic going on, we all were just weary of the constant dismissals we got when we raised concerns about staffing and workload to upper management,” said Larson, noting that the staff had been reduced when the store shut down for a time and was “stretched extremely thin” once it opened again.

“Before the pandemic, I’d say we would have kind of just thought ‘Things aren’t great’ because it was all we had ever known. The pandemic forced us to do some things differently and we learned from that.”

Labor action has surged in many industries over the past two years, including in bookselling, a business where unions had been rare. Since 2020, employees have unionized or are attempting to do so everywhere from Printed Matter in New York City to Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle and Bookshop Santa Cruz in California. In Minnesota, workers at four Half Price Books stores have announced plans to affiliate with locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

“I think COVID-19 was a rude awakening for bookstore workers, and really anyone who works with the public,” says Owen Hill, a buyer at Moe’s Books in Berkeley, California, which unionized earlier this year. “We were given no say regarding safe working conditions, even though we were risking our health by showing up for work. We had to organize in order to be a part of the conversation around worker safety.”

[Mr. Reactionary]

I didn't know there were still bookstores.

[John Dule]

I love Moe's Books. Won't be giving them my business anymore, of course, but it's a great store.

[PSOL]

I didn't know there were still bookstores.

Due to mass chain sellers like Barnes & Nobles losing business to Amazon, smaller bookstores were flourishing in the late 2010s with their main competitor being taken out of the scene and being very much more localized to attract artsy patrons. That growth got stopped recently as the physical nature of these bookstores were put in jeopardy from the pandemic.

I love Moe's Books. Won't be giving them my business anymore, of course, but it's a great store.

Are you seriously going to stop shopping there due to them being unionized “against their will” or whatever the NAP violation is? lol

[Damocles]

Based. Retail workers have been treated like sh#%t for decades by unscrupulous bosses and entitled customers. The least they deserve are some decent working conditions, dignity, and respect.

[Horus]

Private sector workers unionizing is always a good thing.

Public sector unions, especially for teachers and law enforcement, must be scrubbed out of existence for a properly functioning society.

[Person Man]

Private sector workers unionizing is always a good thing.

Public sector unions, especially for teachers and law enforcement, must be scrubbed out of existence for a properly functioning society.

Just thank your lucky stars that the garbage men don’t strike. Public Sector unions totally defeat the purpose of unions. That is, it’s the role of unions to maintain competition for labor when large purchasers of labor corner there market. That’s useless when we are all the employer.

[John Dule]

I love Moe's Books. Won't be giving them my business anymore, of course, but it's a great store.

Are you seriously going to stop shopping there due to them being unionized “against their will” or whatever the NAP violation is? lol

no i just live in michigan now. please stop yelling

[fhtagn]

Only bookstores I know of in my area are like Barnes & Noble, this one used bookstore that has somehow stayed in business for decades, and like 2 Christian book stores.

[HisGrace]

RIP bookstores.

[It’s so Joever]

Tattered Cover actually is one of the few bookstores actually growing and it’s a pretty nice one.
I didn’t buy books from there, but it was nice to sit in the store and read a bit.

[PSOL]

Private sector workers unionizing is always a good thing.

Public sector unions, especially for teachers and law enforcement, must be scrubbed out of existence for a properly functioning society.

Just thank your lucky stars that the garbage men don’t strike. Public Sector unions totally defeat the purpose of unions. That is, it’s the role of unions to maintain competition for labor when large purchasers of labor corner there market. That’s useless when we are all the employer.

I’m sorry, but a Union’s main job is to act as an organized channel to move working class actions in a concerted manner to better their working conditions. The idea that “we” employ public workers or have much say in their work instead of the lobbyists and the upper class’s cogs in congress is wrong.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I didn't know there were still bookstores.

It seems you haven't been paying attention then.

[politics_king]

I support it!