Workers at Labyrinth Books in Princeton, N.J., have filed a petition with the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission to unionize with the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Patch.com reported.
The petition was filed on December 21, and the National Labor Relations Board has proposed a union election date of January 26. Rebecca Ziemann, a Labyrinth employee who helped the staff organize, told Patch that the booksellers are "overworked and underpaid," and they want "fair wages and compensation, an official grievance process, and a say in the decisions made at the store."
Labyrinth owners Cliff Simms, Peter Sims, and Dorothea von Moltke said they "recognize the intention of our employees to unionize," and should the union vote succeed, they will "bargain in good faith for all of our employees and expect to reach a fair and acceptable contract."
Ziemann explained that while employees had been talking for years about forming a union, the process did not "begin in earnest" until workers at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., successfully unionized. Noted Ziemann: "One of our former colleagues posted the press release in our break room. A couple of days later, we got in touch with EWOC and began the unionization process."
Last May, workers at the Rutgers University store in nearby New Brunswick, N.J., which is operated by B&N Education (a separate company from Barnes & Noble), voted to join the RWDSU.