Six Barnes & Noble stores have agreed to join a nationwide unionization drive in the past year, and many more are likely to follow. This makes Barnes & Noble the biggest bookstore chain in the United States.
Workers at the Barnes & Noble chain say that the company isn’t being honest about contract talks, and the CEO is said to have spent a long time trying to convince workers not to join a union by meeting workers and telling them not to.
Jessica Sepple, a bookseller who worked at Barnes and Noble for more than two years, said, “He would come in and try to talk us out of joining a union.” He would say over and over that joining a union would make his life harder as the main reason why we shouldn’t. It didn’t work out very well.”
By a vote of 76-2, the store agreed to join the union. This was the first of many bookstores to do so. In a statement, the CEO, James Daunt, denied claims of delays and said that he agreed with work on the “fundamentals” of their requests. He did, however, say that he had talked about the “pros and cons” of having a union.
Sepple said, “The reason we’re joining a union is to get some respect for the worth of workers.” She went on, “And having sat at the table and being in talks with Barnes & Noble, it is disappointing that they have not treated this with the respect it deserves.”
People say that Daunt tried to convince people that joining a union would hurt him and make his life harder. This didn’t make the workers happy because they wanted to join a union, and it looked like the CEO only cared about how it would affect him.
