Hadley, Massachusetts–already the site of the first unionized Trader Joe's in America–has another union campaign in town this year as Barnes & Noble workers in the town are seeking to unionize their store. Affiliated with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459, they're on track to become the second unionized B&N store in the United States.
According to the union, as reported in The Shoestring, a local outlet:
[...]the majority of our [B&N] staff are still underpaid and without benefits, even while many of us are working nearly or actually at full time hours. Our schedules are inconsistent and often fall outside of our (unreasonably low) rostered number of hours. Our hours are constantly subject to unexpected and unexplained cuts, despite our store being consistently understaffed.
Other concerns, interestingly, included a lack of communication and accessibility from management–particularly about the way the store has been laid out. The union says here: “We are reminded that we must set up the store in a way that purposefully makes it difficult for customers to navigate. While this may make sense for able-bodied customers who will stop to look at displays, it is a nightmare to navigate under any other circumstance for customers and workers alike.” To say the least: it's unusual to see such an intersection of disability/accessibility rights and unionization efforts, but very welcome.
An election date for the union has not been set.