With holiday sales season fast approaching, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union organized a rally outside the Barnes & Noble flagship store in New York City’s Union Square on November 14 in an effort to push the company into reaching a contract with workers by the end of the year. An RWDSU spokesperson said that contract negotiations are in their final stages, with an agreement on wages the last major holdout.

Organized workers from the store, who voted to join the union last June, were joined in the action by union representatives as well as workers at fellow RWDSU-organized, NYC-based stores Book Culture, Greenlight, and McNally Jackson. Also in attendance were unionized workers from the Strand Book Store, organized by United Auto Workers Local 2179, and colleagues from the B&N in Hadley, Mass., who are members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459.

Following the rally, attendees delivered boxes of letters in support of the union, which were crowdsourced from the public by the RWDSU, at the corporate headquarters and at the nearby apartment of CEO James Daunt.

“Booksellers and baristas have waited too long for the company to raise staffing and compensation standards, so now we are fighting to set the industry standard ourselves,” said Miette Muller, a senior bookseller at the Hadley B&N. “We’re rallying because the time has come for corporate to respect booksellers and baristas—stop delaying negotiations so we can finish our first contract.”

In an email following the rally, Daunt confirmed to PW that the union and the company “only disagree on the economics—that is, the pay. Actually, we agree on this insofar as that it should be as high as is prudent for booksellers. They ask, however, for an increase of 60%, and this is not reasonable for a bookseller. The context is that B&N already pays in NYC better than at the independent bookstores that have ratified union contracts.”

Workers at the rally stated that the starting wage for B&N booksellers in NYC is currently $18.00. The RWDSU spokesperson added that the rate is the same as the starting rate negotiated in the contract by McNally Jackson union workers, signed in 2021, which is set to be renegotiated next year.

“The only reason that B&N has even remotely come on par with independent booksellers in New York is because of the union,” the spokesperson said. “Now we'd like to see it in writing. Unless or until it is in writing, workers have no assurances that their wages won't be changed by the company.”

A day earlier, five retail workers, including McNally Jackson bookseller Kathryn Harper, spoke at another RWDSU-organized event, a virtual press conference focused on drawing attention to the ways union shops can avoid some of the worst challenges of retailing during the holiday season. Noting that working conditions during the season have “definitely improved” since the first union contract was ratified in 2021, Harper, who has been with McNally since 2018, said that she and her colleagues “now have excellent protections,” including fair breaks, pay, and scheduling—“which is critical at holiday time”—and are even provided with free coffee by management during their breaks.

In contrast, Harper pointed out, B&N workers are “still fighting for their first union contract, and don’t have these protections, making this busy time especially stressful.” She also urged consumers to be patient and kind to workers during the holiday season: “Don't be the person that I'm going to come home and complain to my roommates about later.”

Last week, B&N acknowledged that it had expanded its plan to open new stores nationwide this year, with a goal of 60 shops by year’s end, up from a goal of 50 set earlier this year. A total of 12 new locations are planned for California, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Utah, and Washington, D.C.