After about a year of contract negotiations, Barnes & Noble workers in Bloomington voted Saturday to ratify their first-ever contract.
Workers at the Empire Street store join just three others in the country as members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union [RWDSU] with ratified contracts — all of which are based in New York City and voted to approve their first contracts within the past week.
“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," RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum, said in a press release. "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."
Bloomington's Barnes & Noble workers unionized with RWDSU in Nov. 2023 and began bargaining a first contract in March 2024.
On Oct. 11, workers walked off the job to protest stalled negotiations; on Dec 20, workers called for a one-day boycott of the store for the same reason and were joined by members of the United Faculty of Illinois State University in support.
“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," Zane Crockett, the store's lead bookseller, said in a release. "We now have stools at the 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."
The stools allow baristas and cashiers to sit down if needed, and additional measures in the union's first contract include provisions to protect workers in case the store closes permanently or relocates.
"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," Crockett said.
In total, there are seven unionized Barnes & Noble bookstores across the country, including the company's flagship store in Manhattan.
More than 200 workers are represented in the contracts NYC stores and Bloomington's store ratified in the last week.
