HOST INTRO: Unionization, strikes, and contract negotiations have been making headlines for months. Recently in New York City, two Barnes & Noble locations elected to unionize over the summer. The flagship store at Union Square and the high-earning Park Slope store, along with a few others across the country, have unionized and are currently negotiating their first contract. Valerie Conklin spoke to a representative of their union and some employees at other New York City branches that haven’t unionized to get their takes.
AMBI: Audio of a B&N transaction being completed. (FADE DOWN AS TRACK BEGINS)
TRACK: I just picked up Carlos Morales, a lead bookseller, from Barnes & Noble’s Upper West Side location. We’ve stopped in a nearby library so he can get away from his workplace for a while. Carlos looks around and points out the books he recommends to customers as we walk through the shelves and find a quiet spot to speak.
ACT: MORALES: “Working retail can be a little frustrating. Customers aren’t understanding, you have to be on your feet, you’re always looking for a book that’s like finding a needle in a haystack, so it’s a lot of stress.”
TRACK: When I ask Morales why he thinks Barnes and Noble Union Square unionized and not his own store. He points out the location’s proximity to the corporate office–they share a building–and the huge daily volume of customers numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
ACT: MORALES: “At Union Square, there’s a lot of stress from Management, from customers.” “Whoever is feeling really mistreated, that’s where it starts off and I don’t think all the stores are feeling it as much as Union Square.”
AMBI: Phone ringing. (END ABRUPTLY BEFORE TRACK BEGINS)
TRACK: The unionizing Barnes & Noble stores joined the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. I have Chelsea Connor, National Director of Communications and Media Relations for the RWDSU, on the phone to discuss where Barnes & Noble is at in its negotiations. She tells me that working through the pandemic brought workers’ frustrations to a head.
ACT: CONNOR: Workers have experienced really what it has meant to be reopening amidst a pandemic. With that comes struggles.” “Customers who are not behaving properly. It comes with aggravation of customers who are returning to instore shopping.”
TRACK: Connor describes the difference between the stores that have unionized and those that haven’t.
ACT: CONNOR: “That’s not to say that other stores aren’t organizing, it’s just that those two stores are ready and moved and workers were able to file earlier this year.”
TRACK: Other workers at Morales’s Upper West Side location tell me they haven’t been contacted by anyone planning to unionize. One senior barista says he wouldn’t want to join a union anyway because organizing requires a lot of extra work. For now, the stores that needed it most are negotiating their first contract with Barnes & Noble. For Baruch College, I’m Valerie Conklin.