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Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
Sun Jul 20, 2014, 06:47 AM Jul 2014

Workers Force Indie Bookstore To Live Up to Its Values

Wednesday, Jul 9, 2014, 7:13 pm

Workers Force Indie Bookstore To Live Up to Its Values

BY George Joseph

A few blocks away from Columbia University, independent bookstore chain Book Culture’s two Morningside Heights locations are often packed with young patrons poring over Feuerbach critical readers or Camus postcards. So many of the company’s progressive customers were dismayed when, on June 27, they received a mass email from Book Culture owner Chris Doeblin informing them that several store managers had been fired for voting to unionize, along with one other worker accused of a separate infraction.

“It became clear that several of the store’s supervisors were not willing to continue to perform the role of supervisors within the new environment of having the unionized workforce,” Doeblin wrote. “We respect them for their candor, but they could not continue as employees when they were unwilling to perform their job’s most essential functions.”

In response to the five firings, the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, the workers’ prospective union, filed an Unfair Labor Practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. RWDSU members also picketed outside both stores every day for a week, blowing up inflatable rats and encouraging onlookers to boycott the establishments. On July 2, nearly every worker walked out on a one-day strike.

The next day, Book Culture hired back all four fired supervisory workers and negotiated a compensation package for the fifth, officially retracting its claim that she had been eavesdropping on management conversations.

More:
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/16932/workers_force_indie_bookstore_to_live_up_to_its_values

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Workers Force Indie Bookstore To Live Up to Its Values (Original Post) Judi Lynn Jul 2014 OP
Excellent news. dixiegrrrrl Jul 2014 #1
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