Despite threats of e-commerce, brick-and-mortar bookstores are thriving as customers turn to the comforts of novels amid tumultuous times. As a result, RWDSU members are continuing to win sizable wage increases, improvements to their working conditions, and importantly safety provisions. Unionized bookstore workers are proving that the feeling of wandering the store, asking an experienced bookseller for recommendations, and walking out with the perfect new read is irreplaceable for many customers, but it requires a necessary investment in workers — which we are winning!
Just this year alone, RWDSU Local 1102 members at Book Culture, McNally Jackson/Goods for the Study, Greenlight Bookstore/Yours Truly, Brooklyn, and newly organized workers at Barnes & Noble have all secured historic union contracts with the RWDSU. The latest bookstore workers to ratify a new agreement at Greenlight/Yours Truly did so unanimously, locking in significant wage increases, safe staffing minimums, and increased PTO, among other important improvements.
Bargaining committee member and union steward Maritza Montañez, a buyer at Greenlight Bookstore, pointed out that “this strong contract will decrease turnover, make better use of booksellers’ skillsets, and ultimately benefit the entire company as well as our customers and community.”
Importantly, RWDSU bookstore members have carefully aligned their union contracts so they will all be up for renegotiation around the same time in three years. In New York City, with our fellow union members at the Strand who are members of UAW Local 2179, together we represent about 40% of locations of the major corporate and independent chain bookstores in the city. Union booksellers across the city are well positioned to harness our collective power to continue winning strong contracts, building on current gains and setting a standard for other brick-and-mortar retailers.
“We must raise the floor, and one of the best outcomes of all of this is knowing our win will help establish higher benchmarks for the industry as a whole – materially improving the lives and security of workers we’ll likely never meet,” said union steward Owen Watson, a bookseller at Greenlight Bookstore and member of the bargaining committee.
RWDSU members are proving that it is possible for in-store retail to thrive in 2025 with strong union contracts in place. Know a bookseller or other retail worker looking to unionize? Reach out to an organizer today!
